Man arrested in Las Vegas bio lab probe; many unidentified samples found

Law enforcement leaders said Monday they arrested one man in connection with an alleged illegal biological laboratory in the east Las Vegas Valley.

Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill said authorities arrested Ori Solomon, 55, on a felony charge of disposing and discharging hazardous waste. McMahill said Solomon was the property manager for a house on Sugar Springs Drive, near North Hollywood Boulevard and East Washington Avenue, that local and federal law enforcement have been investigating since early Saturday morning.

McMahill said Metropolitan Police Department officers discovered multiple refrigerators, a freezer and other lab equipment inside the Sugar Springs residence. They found containers that held unknown liquid substances that looked like liquids found following an investigation at a laboratory in Reedley, California, near Fresno, McMahill said. He added that investigators currently do not know what the substances in the residence were or how long it will be until they are identified.

Christopher Delzotto, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Las Vegas field office, said investigators have no knowledge about whether Solomon had expertise in professionally handling biological substances or if he is a trained biologist.

There is no threat to the public and no safety concerns at the house or for nearby neighbors, McMahill said, adding that investigators cleared the scene early Monday morning.

“The operation required multiple carefully controlled entries into potentially contaminated areas, and each entry involved strict safety protocols and extensive decontamination procedures for personnel,” McMahill said, “As a result, the operation was conducted in a slow, methodical manner.”

Officials found 3 living in the home

Just over a week ago, police received information that the Sugar Springs property contained potentially hazardous materials, McMahill said. Investigators found three people living inside the home while executing a search warrant Saturday morning, McMahill said, but none of them are currently involved in the investigation.

Throughout the house, investigators found refrigerators and freezers alongside numerous bottles and jugs containing unknown liquids, McMahill said.

In the garage, Delzotto said investigators discovered multiple refrigerators, a working freezer, a biosafety hood, a centrifuge and unknown red-brown colored liquids in gallon-sized containers. McMahill said various vials and storage containers in the garage held liquids of different colors and compositions.

Delzotto said investigators collected more than 1,000 biological samples from the house during the weekend probe. The substances were temporarily held at a Southern Nevada Health District lab before they were flown to an FBI lab in Maryland, Delzotto said.

“From the collection of evidence to the testing of the samples, the process the FBI laboratory personnel engage in requires systemized, measured steps that cannot be rushed,” Delzotto said.

McMahill said investigators completed evidence collection around 6:30 p.m. Sunday.

California lab

The home that law enforcement investigated is owned by a limited-liability company whose officers include two people facing federal charges in connection with allegations that they distributed medical test kits without regulator approval in California.

Jia Bei Zhu and Zhaoyan Wang, both citizens of China, are accused by federal prosecutors of distributing hundreds of thousands of misbranded COVID-19 and other testing kits as well as making false statements to federal authorities. A jury trial in U.S. District Court in eastern California is scheduled for April, court records show.

A November 2023 Congressional report from the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party said Zhu operated a biological laboratory in Reedley that had vials containing the names of at least 20 potentially infectious agents including HIV, tuberculosis and the deadliest known form of malaria. The report noted that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not test any of the samples in the lab.

The FBI conducted an additional search on the California facility on Sunday, Reedley City Manager Nicole Zieba said, but it is not clear what federal officials were looking for.

“The laboratory, or business, owner and the Vegas residence are owned by the same individual,” Zieba said, adding that Zhu and the Reedley facility have been targets of the federal government since late 2022.

Zieba said the CDC declined to test the materials in the Reedley lab, even after the city offered to pay for the tests.

”I’m thrilled that Vegas is getting the assistance that they’re getting,” Zieba said. “I wish we had, but I’m relieved that from here on out, it appears that the federal government will take these things seriously.”

Zieba and her office had discovered ties between the Reedley lab and Las Vegas in 2023, she said. Though any biological materials at the lab have since been destroyed, Zieba recalled medical test kits and paperwork were left on site.

Federal gun charge

Prosecutors accused Solomon of violating gun laws in a federal criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Nevada on Monday afternoon.

The complaint claimed Solomon entered the United States on a non-immigrant visa and illegally possessed four handguns and two rifles that were discovered while officers were investigating the Sugar Springs house.

Officers found an Israeli passport under Solomon’s name and a French passport under the name “Ori Salomon” in a room that appeared to be his, according to the complaint.

While detained in the Clark County Detention Center early Sunday morning, the complaint said Solomon called the number of his adult daughter and asked, “Is there any guns left? Is there any guns left in the house or did they confiscate it?” The female voice responded to Solomon that she believed officers took three rifles and a lockbox containing a pistol, federal prosecutors said.

The complaint said Solomon replied, “Well, that’s just Christopher’s stuff; that’s not mine.” The complaint did not clarify who Christopher is.

Contact Casey Harrison at charrison@reviewjournal.com. Follow @Casey_Harrison1 on X. Contact Spencer Levering at slevering@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0253.