Fresno County and Reedley officials are pushing for Congress to take action on a bill led by Rep. Jim Costa (D–Fresno) to help protect against secret biolabs similar to what was discovered in Reedley.
The county held a press conference in conjunction with the City of Reedley on Tuesday to push for federal action and to provide an update on the situation regarding the Reedley warehouse, also announcing that a lawsuit that was filed against the county and the city was dropped.
The backstory: After a Reedley code enforcement officer discovered an improper garden hose attached to a warehouse in Reedley, officials discovered various biological materials, pathogens, medical test kits and around 1,000 genetically engineered mice.
- That led to federal prosecutors charging Chinese national Jia Bei Zhu for operating the illegal lab.
- Over the weekend, the FBI raided two Las Vegas homes in connection to Zhu, discovering similar biological material and pathogens, and the FBI returned to the Reedley warehouse last Sunday to execute a sealed search warrant.
- Zhu filed a lawsuit against Fresno County and Reedley two years ago over the situation. That lawsuit was dismissed last week.
Reassuring the public: Reedley City Manager Nicole Zieba reassured the public that all biological material was taken away from the warehouse and destroyed years ago.
- All that remains in the warehouse are the medical test kits and boxes of paperwork. Those items remain under state control.
- “The FBI was in Reedley on Sunday, and a lot of our public believes that potentially they were looking for biologicals,” Zieba said. “I want to assure the public there were no biologicals, no chemicals, no laboratory equipment in that facility after our initial abatement. Nothing returned.”
Talking to Las Vegas: Fresno County Sheriff John Zanoni said he received a phone call from Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill on Monday.
- McMahill expressed his concerns about the biological materials and the pathogens that law enforcement found at a location in the middle of a Las Vegas neighborhood.
- “This is right next door to where people are living,” Zanoni said. “This is not acceptable. The individuals running these labs from what I’ve been told from FBI officials and from folks in Las Vegas are Chinese nationals and other individuals who are out here in our communities. It’s unregulated. We really don’t know what’s going on, and low and behold, when we go to these locations, we’re finding things that are significant health risks and potentially even could cause death to individuals here in the United States.”
Where else: With known illegal labs in Reedley and Las Vegas that have been discovered, Zanoni posed the question of where else this is occurring across the country.
- “That is a scary thought in our discussion when we think about the pathogens, the viruses and these select agents that are in these labs,” Zanoni said. “And there’s no record of it. None of our law enforcement, none of our public health people know where they are, and that really is a threat to the security of the United States, because they’re not regulated. Who knows who’s dealing with this stuff? What are they doing with it? What are their intentions of operating these labs under the radar within our country?”
Calling for action: In part to answer Zanoni’s question, county and city officials want to see Congress take action on Costa’s bill: the Preventing Illegal Laboratories and Protecting Public Health Act, which was cosponsored by Rep. David Valadao (R–Hanford), Rep. Vince Fong (R–Bakersfield) and Rep. Kevin Kiley (R–Rocklin).
- The bill would require distributors or certain pathogens to maintain federally reviewable records of all transfers for at least three years. It would also mandate the federal review of the number of labs.
- “We would call on Congress right now as a body just to engage,” said Fresno County Supervisor Nathan Magsig. “Because now that this second laboratory that was discovered in Las Vegas recently, it shows that there is a real need to make sure that we have regulations and protections in place when it comes to private laboratories, because they’re able to operate under the radar and really causing hazardous situations for our communities.”
- Zieba noted that the warehouse is currently under surveillance and that no one can enter without permission from the city. But she added that the city needs greater support from the state, since there have been break-ins.
- “We do actually have surveillance up to make sure it doesn’t get broken into, and it has been broken into several times,” Zieba said. “And that is why we continue to press on the State of California to do something with those tests. We’ve had vagrants break in, we’ve had gang members break in and it is up to the City of Reedley to try to protect what is embargoed by the State of California. And that is an unfair burden for the Reedley taxpayers to support.”
