New Mexico investigators began a search March 10 of the Zorro Ranch property owned by Jeffrey Epstein after the state reopened a criminal investigation into the site last month.
The state’s attorney general, Raul Torrez, initiated the search, joined by the New Mexico State Police and the Sandoval County Sheriff’s Office.
“This search is part of the criminal investigation announced by the New Mexico Department of Justice on Feb. 19 into allegations of illegal activity at Epstein’s ranch prior to Epstein’s 2019 death,” a state Department of Justice spokesperson said.
The sprawling 7,500-acre property in Santa Fe County, located in the northern region of the state, has remained mostly uninhabited since Epstein’s death.
The current owners of the ranch, Don Huffines, a Texas businessman and former Republican state senator, granted the state access for the search, according to the New Mexico DOJ.
“We urge the public to please stay away from the area and ground any drone activity nearby to avoid interfering with the ongoing law enforcement operation,” the department stated.
Investigators also asked the public to report any information about any related events that occurred in the state to investigators.
Calls to reopen an investigation at the property first started last month after a newly released email from the Epstein investigations revealed alleged claims from a former Zorro Ranch staffer of two women being killed and buried at the ranch.
New Mexico State Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard asked officials for a state investigation into the past claims, she told KRQE last month.
“I’m horrified when I learned something new, especially when I learned that state land could have been used, could have been involved in some of these monstrous activities,” Garcia Richard said.
The New Mexico State Land Office leased Epstein nearly 1,250 acres of land around the property when he first purchased the ranch in the 1990s. Garcia Richard, as land commissioner, canceled the lease after his death and has not released the parcels.
The new property owner, Huffines, purchased it in 2023 and renamed it the San Rafael Ranch, after the saint associated with physical and spiritual healing, and said he planned to turn it into a Christian retreat, “reclaiming it for Jesus,” per his now deleted post on X from Feb. 16, captured and reported by the Santa Fe New Mexican.
The new owner said he has maintained an open line of communication with local authorities and plans to fully cooperate with law enforcement.
The property was first investigated by former state Attorney General Hector Balderas, who worked with the U.S. Justice Department’s regional offices in New York and New Mexico.
Balderas handed off police reports, witness interviews, and other materials to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2019 and was asked to hold off investigating or prosecuting any further activities.
Claims that the ranch was allegedly used by Epstein and others in multiple crimes, including trafficking of children have so far been unsubstantiated.
Virginia Roberts, one of the girls interviewed by investigators in the 2000s, said she was taken to the ranch when she was 17. Another girl, Maria Farmer, told authorities Epstein abused her sister and flew her to the ranch in 1996, according to testimony.
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