Suspicions were raised about the operations of a Chinese-linked biolab in central California far earlier than previously known, according to a review of hundreds of internal emails, documents and photographs obtained by Fox News.

Two California state agencies called on by the city of Fresno to intervene in the matter tell Fox they had no authority to get involved but the delay of local and state officials to take action in fall 2022 appears to have allowed lab workers to empty a warehouse full of dangerous biological agents, lab mice, chemicals and equipment.

A trove of emails obtained through a public records request with the city of Fresno showed one official had been so concerned by Universal Meditech Inc.’s operations he filed urgent pleas with California’s environmental and toxic substance agencies for assistance in possibly shutting down the biolab before it could relocate.

When no one stepped up to stop them, UMI quietly moved last year into a previously vacant warehouse in Reedley about 20 miles away.

Reedley officials were unaware of the move.

Once discovered, the unpermitted and unlicensed lab containing numerous deadly infectious agents wasn’t shut down until March of this year.

That discovery and subsequent media attention has prompted numerous investigations and raised questions over UMI’s true intentions.

The company said it was making pregnancy and COVID-19 tests but local officials then and now aren’t clear on why UMI also possessed hundreds of lab mice and cultures of malaria, dengue fever, HIV and tuberculosis.

“Something is off here,” then-Fresno Fire Chief Kerri Donis said in an email in August 2022 about the leased UMI warehouse on Fortune Avenue. Two years earlier, 39 Fresno firefighters responded to an overnight fire at a workstation in the warehouse. Follow-up investigations concluded there were numerous safety violations, including non-permitted electrical work. The Donis email asked for further investigation from within her department and the city’s code enforcement division.

“The owners are also concerned that the smell in this building could be the result of animal testing,” Donis wrote.

Fire inspector Brennen Henry reported back that his findings corroborated the chief’s suspicions.

“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.” Henry also flagged his concern that “the hazardous materials spills/waste are beyond our capabilities.”

City code enforcement officer Raymond Golden was assigned the case in October and in the weeks that followed made numerous trips to the warehouse.

“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.” Henry also flagged his concern that “the hazardous materials spills/waste are beyond our capabilities.”

His inspections concluded that many of the previously known violations remained and that “the business is involved with medical testing using lab animals…. [and] storing various chemicals and hazardous materials” in violation of city zoning laws.

In the days that followed, Golden sent numerous emails expressing grave concern about the facility.

“Time is of the essence,” he wrote on Nov. 2.

“We are concerned that they may have introduced products that are not intended for disposal in our sewage system,” Golden told other city workers.

On Nov. 3, Golden frustratingly told a fellow investigator from the Fresno County Department of Public Health that “enforcement is delayed due to lack of company representative present,” the documents showed.

That same day Golden asked for help from California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) because “they have law enforcement powers and are able to supersede a need for a warrant.”

In his appeal to the DTSC, Golden said the UMI warehouse “is a significant environmental and immediate safety hazard.”