[REPORT] An Israeli citizen was arrested in Las Vegas after police found a cache of weapons, lab equipment, and more than 1,000 unknown liquids

hassan918 · 2026-03-27T04:32:36+0000

REPORT | An Israeli citizen was arrested in Las Vegas after police found a cache of weapons, lab equipment, and more than 1,000 samples of unknown liquids at a home tied to a widening biosecurity investigation, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Ori Solomon, 55, is accused of illegally possessing firearms and improperly disposing of hazardous waste. Authorities said officers in protective gear removed materials from the home, which were consistent with those found in a separate case in California.

That investigation began when a foul smell led officials to a warehouse in Reedley, where they discovered a hidden lab containing thousands of biological samples, 1,000 lab mice, and evidence of at least 20 infectious agents including SARS, hepatitis, and dengue.

Prosecutors say Chinese national Jia Bei Zhu ran a scheme from there, importing COVID tests from China and selling them as American-made, and a congressional report flagged over $1.3 million in unexplained payments from Chinese banks tied to the operation.

Investigators found Zhu had listed a Las Vegas house as bail collateral and called it hundreds of times over the past year, making it a key lead that led police to raid the Sugar Springs Drive property, where Ori Solomon was identified as the manager.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2037204201688736110

hassan918 · 2026-03-27T04:36:46+0000

Here is a bit more on this matter:

HAMILTON, Canada (AA) - A Chinese fugitive wanted in Canada, and an Israeli national, have been linked to an elaborate fraud scheme involving a secret, unlicensed biological laboratory discovered inside a US warehouse, a report said Thursday.

The report by the Los Angeles Times (LAT) said the case began in 2023 when a building inspector followed a foul smell into a supposedly vacant warehouse in Reedley, a small farming town in southeastern California, and found hundreds of vials labeled with dangerous diseases, including the coronavirus, HIV and Ebola, alongside 1,000 laboratory mice.

The warehouse was linked to Jia Bei Zhu, a Chinese national who prosecutors say imported hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 test kits from China and fraudulently sold them as American-made products, netting $1.7 million, said the report.

It noted that in January, federal agents raided a Las Vegas home connected to Zhu and arrested Ori Solomon, 55, an Israeli, on federal weapons charges.

Investigators removed lab equipment and more than 1,000 samples of unknown liquid from the property, which authorities said resembled materials found in the California warehouse.

The LAT report said a US congressional committee found that Zhu received more than $1.3 million in unexplained payments from Chinese banks, which investigators said cannot be accounted for by his known criminal activity alone.