New Mexico prosecutors and state investigators began Monday searching a secluded ranch in Stanley, a state Attorney General’s office announcement said Tuesday, reviving focus on Jeffrey Epstein’s former property as allegations of sexual abuse and sex trafficking continue to circulate through federal records. The office said the effort is being carried out with the cooperation of the ranch’s current owners and is meant to examine material the state believes warrants further review.
Attorney General Raúl Torrez said his office reopened the state investigation of the property last month, after the agency examined “revelations outlined in the previously sealed FBI files.” Prosecutors said the state’s initial case had been closed in 2019 at the request of federal prosecutors in New York, and state prosecutors now contend that developments referenced in the FBI material justify further inquiry.
The search targets the former Zorro Ranch, a sprawling property in Stanley that Epstein purchased in 1993 and developed with a hilltop mansion and a private runway, according to the state account. The announcement said Epstein once entertained guests at the ranch, and that investigators believe the property may have been used in connection with allegations that young women were sexually abused and trafficked.
The Attorney General’s office said the search will proceed with the cooperation of the current ranch owners. In a statement, the New Mexico Department of Justice said it appreciates that cooperation and said prosecutors “will continue to keep the public appropriately informed, support the survivors, and follow the facts wherever they lead.”
The ranch changed hands after Epstein’s death: the property was sold by Epstein’s estate in 2023, with proceeds going toward creditors, to the family of Don Huffines, the announcement said. Huffines, it said, was a candidate for Texas state comptroller who won the Republican primary last week, according to the announcement’s description of his candidacy at the time.
New Mexico lawmakers have also established a commission to look into past activities at the ranch, the Department of Justice said. Separately, prosecutors said Epstein never faced charges in New Mexico, but in 2019 the state Attorney General’s office confirmed it had interviewed possible victims who visited Epstein’s ranch.
Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal charges accusing him of sexually abusing and trafficking dozens of underage girls, the announcement said. The state’s renewed focus on the Zorro Ranch is now centered on what prosecutors say are federal materials newly examined by Torrez’s office.