Thousands of vials labeled ‘HIV, chlamydia and coronavirus’ found in illegal California lab

One illegal biological laboratorywhich belonged to Chinese peoplediscovered in California, in the town of Ridley. In this, they found themselves thousands of vials of substances, including some marked ‘HIV’, and a freezer marked ‘Ebola’. Initially, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FBI declined to investigate, according to a House committee report released Wednesday.

In accordance with nypost.comthe secret lab was found in December 2022, when the Jessalyn Harper, an employee, noticed a green garden hose sticking out of a hole in the side of a warehouse that had been thought to be vacant for more than a decade. Once inside the warehouse, harper discovered lab equipment, manufacturing devices, medical freezers, lab mice and labeled vials in Mandarin, English, and a code not yet deciphered. In addition, he saw several people inside in lab coats, who were identified as Chinese nationals.

Harper’s discovery was to be the beginning of one 9 months research in the area, during which California Congressman Jim Costa took part, after obstruction by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FBI, to find out what activities were taking place inside the illegal laboratory.

In a 42-page report, they detailed some of the shocking findings of research and the troubling questions raised around the presence of one Chinese-owned research laboratory on US soil.

“Local officials spent months repeatedly trying to get help from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” the report says, noting that “the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention refused to talk to them andin several cases, hung up on them in the middle of the conversation.”

“Local officials failed to get help from other federal agencies,” found congressional investigators, including F.B.Iwhich informed local officials that “had closed his investigation because they believed there were no weapons of mass destruction on the property.”

With his help Governor Costaofficials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eventually visited the lab and identified at least 20 potentially infectious pathogens, including several “serious or fatal human diseases.” Some of the potentially infectious pathogens found by the agency include; coronavirus, chlamydia, HIV, E. coli, strep, hepatitis B and C, dengue virus, rubella virus and malaria.

But they refused to test the samples or the unlabeled vials, even when city officials offered to pay for the tests. The report denounces as “unacceptable» the reluctance of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to get involved and its refusal to examine the vials.

In July, based on a court order, local officials contracted a hazardous waste company to destroy 140 tons of lab equipment and 440 gallons of medical and biological waste found in the area. During this process, a previously unnoticed freezer was found labeled “Ebola».

“Local officials and contractors reported that they found a freezer labeled “Ebola” with silver sealed bags inside, consistent with how lab officials stored sensitive biologicals and other materials,” the report said, noting that the containers inside the freezer were not explicitly marked “Ebola.”

Local officials notified the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of their finding, and the agency responded by saying that he does not recall seeing the label “Ebola». The freezer and its contents were destroyed, without being examined, according to the report.

The action of Jiabei “Jesse” Zhu, the owner of the illegal workshop

The commission’s investigation also revealed a complex relationship between the lab’s owner and founder, Jiabei “Jesse” Zhuand his Chinese Communist Party. Zhu served as a corporate officer in Chinese military-political organizations and in private organizations affiliated with the Chinese government.

Zhu entered the US illegallythrough Canada, after being fined by a Canadian court in the amount of 330 million dollars in 2016, for directing companies involved in “massive theft of American intellectual property,” according to the report.

“The court found that Zhu and his colleagues from China made several alarming statements. These include instances where Zhu responded to a colleague’s reference to “American imperialism” that “the lawful are strong, but the unlawful are ten times stronger“”.

In an other case, Zhu claimed that his illegal activity would help “defeat the American enemy and the wild ambitious wolf!,” the report said, citing private messages sent by Zhu through the Chinese app WeChat.

Once in the US, Zhu operated under the pseudonym “David He» and began working on creating one network of biotechnology companiesincluding this specific lab.

The verdict on Zhu

According to the report, Zhu was subsequently charged with federal offenses about fraud and misrepresentation in an investigation led by the US Food and Drug Administration.

At the same time, the Parliamentary committee found that “except for Ebola”the labeled vials with the presumed pathogens found in the biolab “inconsistent with the operation of a biological weapons program».

The report warns, however, that “the risks to public health posed by the laboratory are, at present, unknown.” “The laboratory shows the deep threat posed to our country by unlicensed and unknown laboratories. At worst, this investigation revealed significant gaps in our nation’s defenses and pathogen-related regulations that pose a serious risk to national security and could be exploited in the future,” the report said. “Hence, it is up to Congress and the executive branch to address these vulnerabilities now, before it is too late».