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Zorro

(18,660 posts)
Wed Mar 25, 2026, 06:20 PM 18 hrs ago

She uncovered a terrifying lab hidden in California, with alleged ties to China

The case of a lifetime started with a putrid smell and a green garden hose sticking out of the side of a supposedly vacant warehouse in California farm country.

Inside the sprawling building on I Street in Reedley, code enforcement officer Jesalyn Harper found vials filled with liquid — some marked in English or Mandarin, others with just a code — that bore frightening labels such as “Malaria,” “COVID-19” and “HIV.” Refrigerators, lined up in columns along a wall, had labels that read “blood” and “Ebola.”

As she walked deeper into the warehouse, passing lab workers filling pregnancy test kits, she located the source of the smell that had brought her there — droppings from 1,000 lab-tested mice, she told The Times during a recent interview. The workers were nice enough, she said, but when she started asking questions she could feel the mood change.

“I realized I’m in trouble, and I need to get out of this building without tipping them off that I’m scared,” Harper said.

Her discovery blew open an elaborate criminal case with ties to California, Las Vegas and China. The investigation in Reedley found that the lab was part of an elaborate scheme to import COVID tests from China and pass them off as American made.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-03-25/she-uncovered-terrifying-lab-hidden-in-california-with-alleged-ties-to-china

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Irish_Dem

(81,141 posts)
1. Not the only Chinese or Russian criminal enterprise in the US.
Wed Mar 25, 2026, 06:28 PM
18 hrs ago

But let's make sure we deport 6 year olds instead.

progressoid

(53,155 posts)
6. Well, Smithfield controls 25% of American pork production.
Wed Mar 25, 2026, 08:48 PM
16 hrs ago

There is no shortage of laws they've broken.

LiberalArkie

(19,778 posts)
4. Reminds me of years ago when a 3 letter American computer manufacturer started having their computers
Wed Mar 25, 2026, 08:34 PM
16 hrs ago

made in China. They did not want people to know that, so they shipped the boxes (which boldly said "Made in America" on them from the U.S. to China. So they were no illegal as the box was indeed made in America.

Importing Chinese tests and repackaging them in "Made in America" boxes goes back a while.

ShazamIam

(3,116 posts)
8. I think that is the third time one of these labs have been found in CA, one was in Fresno, I don't remember the location
Wed Mar 25, 2026, 09:17 PM
15 hrs ago

of the other it might have closer to Nevada.

aggiesal

(10,774 posts)
10. This is a story that broke back in Dec. 2023. Why is the LA Times so late on this story? ...
Thu Mar 26, 2026, 12:39 PM
17 min ago

'Shock after shock': A visit to China's secret biolab in California
Scripps News shows how a secret lab in central California was connected to the Chinese Communist Party.
By: Sasha Ingber
Posted 9:07 AM, Dec 07, 2023
and last updated 8:46 AM, Jul 24, 2024
https://www.scrippsnews.com/us-news/shock-after-shock-a-visit-to-china-s-secret-biolab-in-california

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