New Mexico prosecutors launch search of Jeffrey Epstein’s secluded former Zorro Ranch

SANTA FE, New Mexico — State investigators on Monday began searching a remote ranch in New Mexico where financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein entertained guests amid allegations that the property may have been used for sexual abuse and sex trafficking of young women.

The office of state Attorney General Raúl Torrez announced that the search was being carried out with the cooperation of the current owners of the ranch.

Torrez reopened an investigation into the ranch last month. New Mexico’s original case was closed in 2019 at the request of federal prosecutors in New York, and state prosecutors now say “the revelations outlined in the previously sealed FBI files warrant further review.”

Epstein bought the sprawling Zorro Ranch in Stanley, New Mexico, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Santa Fe, in 1993 from former Democratic Gov. Bruce King and built a hilltop mansion with a private trail.

The property was sold by Epstein’s estate in 2023 – with proceeds going to creditors – to the family of Don Huffines, a candidate for Texas state comptroller who won the Republican primary last week.

“The New Mexico Department of Justice appreciates the cooperation of the current owners,” the agency said in a statement. Prosecutors “will continue to keep the public properly informed, support survivors, and follow the facts wherever they lead.”

Additionally, New Mexico state lawmakers created a new commission to review the ranch’s past operations.

Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial in 2019 on charges of sexually abusing and trafficking dozens of underage girls.

Epstein was never charged in New Mexico, but the state attorney general’s office confirmed in 2019 that it had interviewed potential victims who had visited Epstein’s ranch.