Officials bust illegal lab containing 20 infectious agents, hundreds of lab mice

[LiberalArkie]

Local and federal authorities have shut down what seems to be an illegal medical lab hidden in a California warehouse that contained nearly 1,000 laboratory mice, hundreds of unknown chemicals, refrigerators and freezers, vials of biohazardous materials, including blood, incubators, and at least 20 infectious agents, including SARS-CoV-2, HIV, and a herpes virus.

According to NBC News affiliate KSEE of Fresno, local authorities were first tipped off to the unlicensed facility when a local code enforcement officer noticed that a garden hose was illegally attached to the back of the building. That led city officials to obtain a search warrant to inspect the warehouse, which was supposed to only be used for storage.

According to court documents obtained by NBC News, city officials inspected the warehouse, located in Reedley, southeast of Fresno, on March 3. County health officials then inspected the facility on March 16. What they found reportedly shocked them.

"This is an unusual situation. I’ve been in government for 25 years. I’ve never seen anything like this,” Reedley City Manager Nicole Zieba told KSEE.

Snip

https://arstechnica.com/health/2023/07/illegal-lab-with-infectious-diseases-and-dead-mice-busted-in-california/

[Wingus Dingus]

1. WTF? I look forward to where this investigation goes. That's really scary.

[LiberalArkie]

7. midvalleytimes

https://midvalleytimes.com/article/news/2023/07/25/investigation-on-reedley-building-uncovers-bio-health-hazards/

[Ellipsis]

13. My antivirus software says that your link is infected.

[LiberalArkie]

16. My Safari did not find anything, but the other links in the posted article are good.

[canetoad]

37. The link keeps timing out for me

Could be a problem with a script that runs on the page. Now getting a 'Bad Gateway' error.

Try this link:

https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/local-news/ive-never-seen-anything-like-this-illegal-medical-lab-discovered-in-reedley/

[EYESORE 9001]

2. Well, that's disturbing

So much potential for mayhem.

[Fullduplexxx]

3. Probably some magat doing their own research to prove fauci wrong

Or a right-winger trying to create a super bug

[flamingdem]

4. Omg wonder if you're right

.. or a magat who wanted to let loose on California.

[LiberalArkie]

8. A Chinese lab. They can not bring things into the US without inspection, But

they can create it here.

And a lot of Asian countries do not understand safety protocols.

[plimsoll]

23. Smuggling in whatever they want is way easier than standing up a lab.

This is homegrown freak show. The question will be who's is it.

[stopdiggin]

24. is there any evidence this is a foreign operation?

(although in a melting pot like SoCal ... who the hell really knows ..)

[3Hotdogs]

28. Nah. Israel. I bet it's traced to the same Mossad characters that are operating the space

lasers that are starting the forest fires in California.






Ya don't believe me? Google it.

[stopdiggin]

29. thanks!

now I have something to do with the rest of my day! ------ -----

-------- ---- --------

[3Hotdogs]

30. Don't waste your time. It's true. Everything I post on D.U. is true.

[area51]

19. +1

My money would be on your second theory.

[NJCher]

22. yep

this makes sense to me.

[Hugin]

5. Oh, crap...

I knew eventually some nut would turn up producing biological terrorism agents for “home defense”. Incredibly, stupid.

[marybourg]

6. Excellent regulatory agency action!

[keithbvadu2]

9. 1+

[70sEraVet]

10. 'a local code enforcement officer' is not normally my idea of a hero!

[Hugin]

11. I'm thinking he thought he was on the trail of an illicit grow house...

Then, Aaaaieee!

[plimsoll]

21. You should.

He probably thought it was an illegal grow, but code violations often hide other secrets. They're there to protect the community and they do, but they'll often ensnare illegal activities other than the intended problems.

[58Sunliner]

12. Scary. They illegally dumped biohazard.

[MissB]

14. Reminds me of the rajneeshees!

Wonder what the purpose of this lab was!

Edited to add: every time I try to post a story about how they poisoned a bunch of people, my post won’t post or update.

[MissB]

15. So, there was an epidemiologist

That gave a talk a number of years ago.

He found the lab they used and the samples of the salmonella. The rajneeshees poisoned hundreds (made them sick, didn’t kill anyone iirc).

It was super interesting and the gist that I got from his talk was that it was mostly luck that they found it.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

17. I am also curious as to what was going on here

[littlemissmartypants]

18. Interesting, thanks LiberalArkie. ❤️

[ancianita]

20. I hope this is a job for the Garland DOJ.

[AllaN01Bear]

25. could be a biological weapon?

who makes people judge ? jury and executioner.

[stopdiggin]

26. unfortunately, there is almost assuredly more of this 'do it yourself'

home and basement 'research' going on that anyone really has a handle on. Genetics, biotech, bio-med ... The tools and information are available - and, unfortunately, humans will be humans. The curious (and averous) monkey.

And, again unfortunately (to my point of view anyway) - we really don't have anything like an adequate regulatory system or structure to address any of this.

[Snackshack]

27. This is very very not good.

…and you cannot get your hands on this type of thing easy at all. 20 infectious agents including SARS, HIV. Those are weapons of mass destruction. Had something happened like a plane crashing into building or earthquake and those agents became uncontrollable they could kill millions.

They need to find out who is funding this because it’s not cheap either and there is really no other reason to have materials like this in such a place if your are not intending to create chaos and havoc say…during an election.

[LiberalArkie]

33. I think just about any college lab could order out all of them

[Snackshack]

34. Chemicals...

Tools, supplies yea. Cole-Parmer, Sigma Aldrich, VWR has everything one needs for lab ops.

Biological agents, No. there are a number of certifications and pre-requisite that have to be signed on before an organization can get biological agents.

[LiberalArkie]

36. They can I believe. I think back in Bush - the lesser days, that the Uni of Arkansas had to

turn over it's stockpile of Anthrax, Bubonic and others.

[Snackshack]

39. I think University Medical Schools

Do have an ability to get but they have the facilities that are built with the bio safety precautions required for different pathogens but there is always the chance of another super smart person breaking bad.

Article said this was found in a warehouse, I am imagining something cobbled together like a meth lab set up in a garage not the antiseptic bio safely level 4 type setup required for some bio agents.

[Kid Berwyn]

31. DIY Andromeda Strain

[LiberalArkie]

32. I loved the book and the original movie

[Kid Berwyn]

38. Me, too. Outstanding works.

Your OP is up there, three.

According to the court documents, the mice were kept in inhumane conditions. More than 175 were found dead, and the city took possession of the remaining animals in April and euthanized 773. Substances collected from the lab were given to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for testing. The agency detected at least 20 potentially infectious agents, the documents read.

Assistant Director of the Fresno County Department of Public Health Joe Prado said that all the biological agents had been destroyed as of July 7. Although officials were still working on removing equipment from the warehouse, Zieba said that there is " nothing hazardous at this point."

A criminal investigation is ongoing. The tenant of the warehouse is listed as Prestige Biotech. Prado told KSEE that the company's president, Xiuquin Yao, was not forthcoming with information. According to the court documents, Yao told officials that his company had moved assets belonging to a defunct company called Universal Meditech Inc. (UMI), to the Reedley warehouse from another Fresno location where UMI had operated before it was evicted. Prestige was identified as a creditor to UMI. But, Prestige allegedly failed to provide any licensing or permit that would explain the laboratory activity at the warehouse.

Universal Exports of Chynah probably belongs to the Chamber of Commerce.

[Snackshack]

40. +1