Ars Technica covers a weird, almost cinematic story out of California, where law enforcement officials have, following a code-enforcement tip, just busted an illegal lab filled with blood samples, equipment, nearly 1,000 mice, and 20 different infections agents, including covid, herpes, and HIV … apparently owned by a Chinese national who isn’t being exactly forthcoming about the whys and wherefores of the warehouse operation:
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.
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According to the court documents, [Prestige Biotech President Xiuquin] 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.
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You can see a slightly hyped-up news report here from KSEE.