if one wanted to scheme, imagine first an ample supply of chinese MD immigrants who are not licensed to practice in the USA (btw, these exist). plus chinese nurses and so on.
recognize that they need to be paid. so imagine cash (lots of cash, usa 100 notes) flowing across the canadian border from vancouver via chinese nationality couriers. the cash needs to be escorted to fresno and then distributed to chinese nationality workers.
end up with lots of cash transactions in the immediate area, particularly rent and car leasing, by foreign nationals.
this would not be too tough to figure out but the local bank records might need to be scrutinized.
fallout would be exposure of meth labs in the area. that’s already well established, so there is a protection path that the chinese (or whoever) would merely need to follow and imitate. for anyone really in a position to look, they could probably already see what was going on.
it surely seems odd that the inspectors got there mere hours after the refrigerator cords got pulled.
one might start with the inspector who drove by and noticed the garden hose. to me, that is a big noisy wigwag of a tell of potential corruption. did she recently buy an orchard and maybe even a land rover to go with it? recently take vacations to southern europe and/or the ivory coast?
just saying.
reedley is almost exactly equidistant from san jose and los angeles. and it is a place that most californians have never heard of, much less visited.
if i were a bio-skilled chinese immigrant, i would be drawn to lucrative employment that would minimize the pain of getting to san jose or los angeles for as much off time as possible. if i were a bioweapons lab ceo, i would want to locate the lab in a location that is as out of the way as possible while still being able to attract the necessary bio-skills.
the want ads for these jobs almost write themselves (even if they are in mandarin). (that is, if anyone was looking for them. which is debatable.)
and cell phone pings. just a hint for all those 21st century detectives and feds who seem to need a clue.