it's some serious shit, that's for sure.
USA Today has coverage of the story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/07/31/illegal-lab-california-infectious-mice/70502532007/
They were discovered because a city code enforcement officer notices a garden house connected to a spigot outside of the building. A building the city had listed as being vacant.
Prestige Biotech, the business inhabiting the building, had been operating the unlicensed and unregulated laboratory since October 2022, according to court documents.
Emails between city officials and Xiuquin Yao, the company president, showed that Prestige Biotech had assumed assets from the now-defunct company Universal Meditech Inc. (UMI). Prestige Biotech was a creditor to UMI and became its successor, court documents said.
Authorities were unable to find any California-based addresses associated with the company except for UMI's Fresno location. Court documents noted that other addresses provided were either "empty offices or addresses in China that could not be verified."
Prestige Biotech is a Chinese government owned business registered in Nevada.
Prestige Biotech claims they were just trying to make a better covid & pregnancy test.
I don't want to say that there was probably some serious spy shit happening there but...