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By Jordan King
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Federal agents and Las Vegas police are investigating a suspected biolab at a northeast Las Vegas residence.
The FBI and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police (LVMPD) Department carried out a search warrant on the house between Saturday and Monday, when they found potentially hazardous substances stored in the garage.
The house on Sugar Springs Drive is owned by a suspect already in custody on charges in relation to a 2023 biolab investigation in California, where the items found were “possibly associated with a range of infectious diseases,” including hepatitis, COVID-19, HIV, malaria and more, LVMPD Sheriff Kevin McMahill said in a press conference on Monday.
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It is not yet known whether the items discovered in the Las Vegas investigation are the same, but they are “consistent in appearance” with the ones recovered in California, McMahill said.
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Ori Solomon, 55, who is believed to be the property manager for the Las Vegas residence, is a second suspect. He has been charged with disposing and discharging hazardous waste, police said.
When Newsweek contacted the LVMPD for further comment, it was directed to its most recent press release. Newsweek has also contacted the FBI, via email, for comment.
Why was the Las Vegas house searched?
Just over a week ago, the LVMPD received a tip that laboratory equipment and potentially hazardous materials were possibly being stored in a home on Sugar Springs Drive.
Investigators discovered that the home was owned by the person in custody in relation to the California probe and “the nature of that earlier investigation raised significant concern for what we might encounter in this new case,” McMahill told reporters.
While it was not known if large quantities of hazardous materials would be found at the Las Vegas residence, “the possibility required [the LVMPD] to proceed with extreme caution,” McMahill added.
As a result, the LVMPD’s counter terrorism section, its All-Hazard Regional Multi-Agency Operations and Response (ARMOR) force and the FBI launched a joint investigation.
What did police find at the Las Vegas house?
Investigators executed a search warrant on the Sugar Springs Drive house early on Saturday morning and found a locked garage that investigators believed was storing hazardous materials.
They discovered refrigerators, a freezer, laboratory-type equipment, and numerous containers holding unknown liquid substances.
The items found were “consistent in appearance” with the items found in the California investigation,” McMahill said. They have been sent to FBI labs for testing.
Officers also found three residents at the house, who had each rented a room independently. They are not believed to be part of the investigation and have been safely removed from the property, McMahill said.
How was the house searched?
“Due to the unknown nature of the materials, the operation required multiple controlled entries, strict safety protocols, and extensive decontamination procedures,” the LVMPD said in an update on X.
Investigators deployed drones and a “robot dog” to clear the inside of the house and conduct air sampling before officers entered.
“Once safe to proceed, the ARMOR team entered wearing protective equipment,” the LVMPD said.
Bodycam footage shows the search being carried out in the garage by officers in full protective gear.
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