Why would a bio-lab run by a shady Chinese company be operating in Reedley, CA in the central San Joaquin Valley? What was supposed to be an empty building used only for storage was home to a black-market type of lab testing facility.
773 of the mice had to be euthanized, and officials found another 178 mice already dead. "This is an unusual situation. I've been in government for 25 years. I've never seen anything like this," said Reedley City Manager Nicole Zieba.
NBC News reports that an investigation found the tenant was Prestige BioTech, a company registered in Nevada and unlicensed for business in California.
City officials spoke with Xiuquin Yao, who was identified as the company president, through emails included in the court documents.
Yao told officials that Prestige BioTech moved assets belonging to a defunct company, Universal Meditech Inc., to the Reedley warehouse from Fresno after UMI went under.
Officials were unable to get any California-based address for either company except for the previous Fresno location from which UMI had been evicted.
As Kyle Bass asks in a brief tweet-thread: Is this illegal lab the tip of the iceberg? How many additional bioagent labs will be found? THIS WAS A LUCKY FIND. The lab was discovered by Reedley, CA city code enforcement officers when they saw a garden hose attached to the building and investigated.
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