Category: Las vegas
Another secret Chinese biolab found on US soil?
Following the discovery that Chinese communist agents were coordinating intimidation, espionage, and coercion campaigns out of illegal police stations in the United States, officials found something potentially more threatening in Reedley, California: a Chinese biolab containing deadly pathogens including Ebola.
The secret Chinese lab apparently was not one of a kind.
‘These items, importantly, were consistent in appearance to the items found and described in the Reedley, California, lab investigation.’
SWAT officers with the Las Vegas Metro Police Department raided a home in the city’s northeast end on Jan. 31, discovering a suspected illegal biolab apparently linked to the Chinese national who owned the Reedley site.
Footage shows local and federal agents massing outside a Sugar Springs Drive residence near Washington Avenue and Hollywood early Saturday morning while drones patrolled overhead.
A tactical robot dog explored the interior and conducted air sampling before members of the LVMPD’s All-Hazard Regional Multi-agency Operations and Response team made entry.
The main house was home to three renters who were safely removed and are apparently not targets of the investigation. The locked garage was home to “refrigerators, a freezer, laboratory-type equipment, and numerous containers holding unknown liquid substances,” according to police.
The apparent biological materials, which were carefully collected over the course of the weekend along with other evidence, were initially transported to a Southern Nevada Health District facility for safe storage, then taken to an FBI lab for testing.
LVMPD Sheriff Kevin McMahill indicated on Monday that “these items, importantly, were consistent in appearance to the items found and described in the Reedley, California, lab investigation.”
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Photo by ARUN SANKAR/AFP via Getty Images
McMahill noted further that “the home was owned by the same individual connected to a prior, illegal bio-lab investigation in Reedley, California, that occurred in 2023.”
That individual is Jia Bei Zhu.
The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party noted in its report on the Reedley biolab that the California lab operated under the direction and control of Zhu, a Chinese citizen associated with communist regime-linked companies as well with Chinese military-civil fusion entities.
‘This can’t keep happening.’
Zhu, a wanted fugitive from Canada, where he is the subject of a $330 million judgment for stealing American intellectual property, illegally entered the United States under the false identity of “David He,” said the report.
While unlawfully in the U.S., Zhu set up a network of companies and accumulated a vast supply of potential pathogens including including Ebola, COVID-19, HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis, which he is accused of keeping and poorly storing at one or more unlicensed and unregistered labs.
In addition to thousands of samples of potentially dangerous diseases and hundreds of boxes of medical devices subject to a U.S. Food and Drug embargo, the Reedley lab was home to roughly 1,000 mice that were genetically engineered to mimic the human immune system.
One lab worker reportedly told local officials that the transgenic mice were altered “to catch and carry the COVID-19 virus.” Dead mice were apparently disposed of “without the use of a licensed medical waste hauler.”
According to the congressional report, the Reedley biolab received millions of dollars in unexplained payments from Chinese communist banks.
Zhu was arrested by federal agents on Oct. 19, 2023, and indicted the following month for allegedly distributing adulterated and misbranded COVID-19 test kits and making false statements to authorities about his identity. He was slapped with additional charges in 2024 for alleged conspiracy and wire fraud.
Zhaoyan Wang, Zhu’s supposed lover and business partner, was charged with helping facilitate the alleged fraud through Universal Meditech Inc. and Prestige Biotech Inc. — biolabs she operated in Reedley and Fresno. Wang is also a Chinese national.
McMahill indicated that Zhu, who has a trial hearing scheduled for Feb. 23, remains in federal custody.
The LVMPD also arrested the property manager of the Vegas residence, 55-year-old Ori Solomon, on a charge of disposing and discharging hazardous waste. Solomon was booked into the Clark County Detention Center.
On Saturday, the FBI searched a second Vegas home on Temple View Drive but found no threat at the location. The FBI also revisited the Reedley lab on Sunday, reported KFSN-TV.
Republican Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.) said in response to the latest lab discovery, “This can’t keep happening.”
“The federal government must do more to stop illegal labs from operating in our communities,” added Kiley.
Kiley and fellow California Reps. Jim Costa (D) and David Valadao (R) have called for a hearing on their Preventing Illegal Laboratories and Protecting Public Health Act of 2025.
Editor’s note: The headline of this article has been edited after publication for clarity.
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Trump’s economic agenda needs a Vegas test — and a Vegas win
Las Vegas is a mirror. When it works, America works. When it struggles, the problem isn’t local — it’s national.
Vegas was built on a simple idea: value. Give people a reason to come, treat them fairly, and let them choose how much risk they want to take. No lectures. No stupid political games. No government hand in your pocket every five minutes.
A great city doesn’t nickel-and-dime its customers. Value matters. People don’t expect cheap. They expect fair. That lesson applies nationally, too.
That formula built the entertainment capital of the world. And right now, it’s under pressure.
The neon lights have dimmed
Vegas is getting squeezed from both ends, and the pressure feels familiar because it’s the same pressure families across the country have felt.
Under the Biden administration, inflation surged. Housing costs jumped. Groceries, energy, airfare, and insurance rose together. Families didn’t get richer. Their dollars just bought less.
Reckless spending, energy restrictions, and regulatory overreach drove the damage. Washington acted like prices were somebody else’s problem.
Southern Nevada also felt the economic whiplash. Tourism collapsed during the 2020 lockdowns, wiping out billions and driving unemployment as high as 33% at its peak. Visitor spending returned slowly, then softened again in 2025 — after wages, rents, and debt had already risen on the assumption that demand would keep growing.
For locals trying to raise families, that meant higher baseline costs and less margin for error. Housing, rent, and transportation ate paychecks. Hospitality wages rose, but many workers still lost ground as commuting costs and rents climbed faster.
A gamble on progress
Under President Trump, the trend has started to reverse — not overnight, but directionally. Energy production is up. Supply chains have stabilized. Regulatory pressure has eased. Inflation cooled. Costs didn’t snap back, but the bleeding slowed.
That matters because affordability is competitiveness. Vegas shows what happens when value breaks.
For decades, Vegas understood the middle-class customer: a weekend trip, a decent room, a good meal, a show, maybe a little gambling — and you left feeling like you got your money’s worth.
That perception is cracking. Resort fees that feel like a second room rate. Paid parking where it never used to exist. Food and drink prices that make people stop and stare. Fees stacked on top of fees, revealed at checkout. The experience starts feeling less like entertainment and more like an airport terminal.
Visitors notice. And when people feel squeezed, they don’t just complain — they change their behavior.
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Photo by Timothy Fadek/Corbis via Getty Images
Vegas runs on volume. When fewer visitors come, fewer dollars circulate. The pain hits the dealer, the server, the bartender, the stagehand, the hotel staff, and the rideshare driver long before it reaches the executive suite.
Zoom out, and you see America facing the same dynamic.
The United States used to win because we offered the best value on earth. Not the cheapest — the best deal. A place where costs made sense and life felt attainable.
That edge has been eroding, especially in housing. When home ownership becomes a fantasy, workers can’t relocate, young families delay building stable lives, and talent looks elsewhere.
Meanwhile, competitors are building. Riyadh. Dubai. Macao. Singapore. They’re creating new tourism and entertainment hubs designed to pull dollars away from legacy markets like Las Vegas.
They’re betting America forgets how competition works.
Make Vegas Vegas again
Federal policy matters here. Washington still treats Vegas like a cash register, with outdated rules such as taxing gambling winnings and forcing IRS reporting thresholds stuck in the 1970s. That doesn’t just annoy visitors. It tells the world America doesn’t understand modern consumer behavior.
Ending the federal tax on gambling winnings isn’t radical. It’s strategic. Updating IRS reporting levels isn’t reckless. It’s realistic. Both would improve the visitor experience and help Vegas compete.
The industry also has work to do. A great city doesn’t nickel-and-dime its customers. Transparency matters. Value matters. People don’t expect cheap. They expect fair.
That lesson applies nationally, too.
America doesn’t win by lecturing consumers or ignoring affordability. America wins by making this country the best place on earth to live, work, build, and spend money.
Vegas is telling that story in real time. If Washington listens, the rest of the country benefits.
