LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – A possible biological laboratory found at a home in Las Vegas on Saturday may be connected to a similar incident in California, where officials found infectious agents such as HIV and malaria, the 8 News Now Investigators at Nexstar’s KLAS have learned.
Police and the FBI searched the Las Vegas home, finding a “possible biological laboratory,” including “refrigerators with vials containing unknown liquids,” police said. Shortly before 6 a.m., a Metro SWAT team served a search warrant at the home on Sugar Springs Drive to search for a possible “biological laboratory.”
A second location was also searched, but no lab was located.
An LLC tied to the Sugar Springs home’s county records matches the name of a company that is part of an ongoing federal case in California involving a biological laboratory there. In that case, a Chinese citizen faces federal charges for allegedly manufacturing and distributing misbranded medical devices, according to federal prosecutors.
“Inside the Reedley Biolab, officials observed blood, tissue and other bodily fluid samples and serums; and thousands of vials of unlabeled fluids and suspected biological material,’ raising the concern that they contained pathogens,” according to a federal report from the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. Some of these vials were labeled with the names of pathogens in English or Mandarin.”
Investigators also located “pathogen-labeled containers” with labels such as “dengue fever,” “HIV,” and “malaria,” the report said, along with 1,000 mice.
Items seized from the Reedley, California, biolab. (Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party)
The man connected to the Reedley biolab remained in federal custody ahead of a spring trial. His name is listed as the registered agent of the Las Vegas-based company that owns the Sugar Springs Drive property. The LLC purchased the home in 2022. In December of that year, the illegal operation in Reedley was discovered by local officials, Nexstar’s KSEE/KGPE reported.
Two other people connected to the LLC are tied to a Spring Valley business address. The company appears to have a warehouse location in Las Vegas as well, according to documents.
In court documents, the man previously told a judge he no longer runs the companies, though he remained listed in Nevada business records as of Sunday. There was no indication as of Sunday that he was charged with a crime connected to Saturday’s raid.
During a joint news conference with the FBI on Saturday, Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill noted one person was in custody connected to the raid; however, no case appeared filed in state or federal court as of Sunday.
The EPA was called in to clean up the chemicals at the illegal Reedley lab in 2024.
Sheriff Kevin McMahill nor the FBI elaborated on what substances or other materials police seized from the Las Vegas home. The 8 News Now Investigators have learned samples from the lab will be shipped to the FBI for testing.
McMahill added that this was an isolated incident and there was no threat to the public.
Last year, three California congressmen sponsored a bill in the House aimed at preventing illegal and unregulated laboratories like the one found in Reedley. It was referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce in October, records show.
