A biolab with ties to China was raided earlier this year in central California. New internal emails obtained by Fox News have revealed that the company behind the Reedley facility was a serious concern to local officials months prior to the raid.

At that time, details about what was inside the biolab raised serious concerns about health and safety in Fresno. Officials found dozens of refrigerators and freezers hooked up to illegal wiring, as well as vials of blood and hundreds of lab mice being stored in soiled containers. The tests were being done without proper licensing.

According to the documents, state and local officials knew about the conditions at the off-grid lab months before the public did, and there had previously been calls to investigate the company behind the lab.

Local officials called for a state investigation into the company in fall 2022. At that time, the company was operating out of a different facility in Fresno.

However, the raid on the Reedley lab did not occur until March of this year, when investigators uncovered the dangerous, unlicensed testing that was being conducted. The surrounding California community would not find out about the lab’s existence for another several months.

According to Fox News’ review of the internal documents, two California state agencies say the city of Fresno delayed action to shut down a facility containing biological infectious diseases, including coronavirus, malaria and HIV.

One city official filed urgent pleas with California’s Environmental and Toxic Substance agencies to step in and shut down the Fresno facility. However, the plea reportedly fell on deaf ears in an exchange between local and state officials responsible for investigating concerns associated with testing viruses on hundreds of rodents.

Universal Meditech Inc. and Prestige Biotech had popped up on officials’ radar two years before the raid when firefighters responded to a fire at Meditech’s workstation in Fresno. An investigation that followed the fire found numerous safety violations. Fresno Fire Chief Kerri Donis asked other agencies to step in and further investigate reports of foul odors in the building that officials suspected were linked to animal testing.

“Something is off here,” Donis wrote in an August 2022 email. Donis’ email asked for further investigation from within her department and the city’s code enforcement investigation.

Prestige Biotech told investigators it was a medical testing lab, however local officials concluded there was a lack of transparency.

“According to the tenant, they are a medical testing lab… However, based upon the chemicals and machinery, I don’t believe this is the full picture,” County Fire Prevention Inspector Brennen Henry said.

County officials said the hazardous materials found at the Fresno facility were beyond their capabilities. Henry said time was of the essence for state resources to step in and address the significant safety hazard.

The inspector knew of the lab’s plans to transfer hazardous materials to the warehouse in Reedley, and asked for intervention before the move. State officials referred the issue back to Fresno County.

It was during this exchange that the Chinese lab transferred materials to the Reedley warehouse. CDC officials later discovered 20 improperly-housed infectious diseases and viruses, along with nearly 800 mice — a quarter of which were dead.

A House investigation was opened after news of the raid went public. The lab was found inside House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s California district. McCarthy says lawmakers are working to better understand the intention behind the experiments at the lab. They also hope to determine if there are any similar occurrences in the U.S.

“When you look at what’s going on in our own soil, here is a lab that is studying, doing things they didn’t have jurisdiction or rights to do,” McCarthy said in an interview. “If it wasn’t for code enforcement and fire, we would’ve never known about it. They were selling test kits that weren’t right, research that wasn’t allowed. My concern is to get to the bottom of what happened here but also where is this happening in other parts of the country as well.”

The warehouse has since been shut down. The city of Reedley considers it an abandoned building and plans to destroy it.