Illegal medical lab containing bioengineered mice and infectious agents including HIV and herpes was discovered in California.
HDN Newsroom
The investigation led to a shady biotech company connected to China, which had transformed the warehouse into an underground lab equipped with industrial freezers and hundreds of vials filled with deadly pathogens.
A monthslong investigation into a rural California warehouse uncovered an illegal laboratory filled with infectious agents, medical waste and hundreds of mice bioengineered "to catch and carry the COVID-19 virus," according to Fresno County authorities.
Health and licensing said Monday that Prestige Biotech, a Chinese medical company registered in Nevada, was operating the unlicensed facility in Reedley, California, a small city about 24 miles southeast of Fresno. The company, according to Reedley City Manager Nicole Zieba, had a goal of being a diagnostics lab.
The Fresno County Public Health Department launched its investigation into the facility in December 2022 after a code enforcement officer saw a garden hose attached to a building that was presumed to be vacant and had no active business license, Zieba said.
Further inspection in March revealed that the facility housed various chemicals, suspected biological materials, bodily fluids and hundreds of lab mice, among other lab supplies, according to court documents.
Prestige Biotech had been operating the unlicensed and unregulated laboratory since October 2022, according to court documents.
