New Mexico authorities launch search of ranch previously owned by Epstein | Jeffrey Epstein

New Mexico authorities have launched a search at a ranch previously owned by Jeffrey Epstein, state officials announced Monday.

According to civil and criminal proceedings, the late sex offender and financier’s so-called Zorro Ranch was the site of numerous alleged abuses. But the location was not subject to the same scrutiny as other Epstein properties, and a Guardian investigation in February found that federal authorities apparently never searched the New Mexico ranch.

New Mexico Department of Justice in question On Monday, a “search began” at the Zorro Ranch with the assistance of state police and the Sandoval County Sheriff’s Office. The search was conducted at the direction of Raúl Torrez, New Mexico’s attorney general.

There has been renewed interest in Zorro Ranch since the U.S. Department of Justice recently disclosed nearly 3 million investigative documents related to Epstein. The search comes just weeks after Torrez announced the state would reopen its 2019 investigation into allegations of illegal activity at Epstein’s ranch. The state said it put the case on hold at the request of federal prosecutors in New York, who are conducting the second investigation into the sex-trafficking scheme that led to Epstein’s arrest.

New Mexico state lawmakers also established a “truth commission” to examine activities at the ranch.

spreading 10,000 acres The (4,000-hectare) ranch is located outside Santa Fe, New Mexico, and according to testimony from several women, Epstein allegedly abused teenage girls and young women there for years with impunity. Survivors detailed a series of horrors on the isolated property, according to court papers.

It was a place allegedly visited by powerful men, including a former governor of New Mexico, and it was also the proposed setting for Epstein’s home. announced plans to spread his DNA throughout the human race by impregnating as many women as possible.

The Guardian’s investigation last month found there was no active criminal investigation into the farm before the state recently reopened the case.

Seven years after Epstein’s arrest, the investigation of the farm poses significant challenges. New Mexico defense lawyer and former prosecutor John Day told the Guardian recently that the long delay likely meant “anything they could find would be of minimal value.” “You don’t know what happened between the last time the Epstein was there and when new people bought it, so that’s a problem.”

Kate Mangels, partner at the firm Kinsella Holley Iser Kump Steinsapir, said in a statement before the search announcement on Monday that the search was unlikely to reveal forensic evidence. But a search of the property could potentially corroborate the survivors’ accounts, he added: “If the layout of the house hasn’t changed and they say: ‘I remember someone coming in the bathroom door on the left side of the room,’ and the search shows he was there, that gives more credence to that victim’s account.”

In announcing the search, the state justice department thanked the current property owners for their cooperation and urged the public to avoid the area. Authorities did not provide further details about the search, saying: “The New Mexico justice department will continue to appropriately inform the public, support survivors, and follow the facts wherever they lead.”