New Mexico authorities launch search of ranch previously owned by Epstein

New Mexico authorities launched a search of a ranch previously owned by Jeffrey Epstein, state officials announced on Monday.The late convicted sex offender and financier’s so-called Zorro Ranch was the site of numerous alleged abuses, according to civil and criminal proceedings. But the location was not subject to the same scrutiny as other Epstein properties, and a Guardian investigation in February revealed that federal authorities apparently never searched the New Mexico ranch.The New Mexico Department of Justice said Monday it had “initiated a search” of the Zorro Ranch, with state police and the Sandoval county sheriff’s office assisting. The search was carried out at the direction of New Mexico attorney general, Raúl Torrez.There has been renewed attention on Zorro Ranch since the US Department of Justice’s recent disclosure of roughly 3m investigative documents related to Epstein. The search comes several weeks after Torrez announced the state would reopen its 2019 investigation into claims of illegal activity at Epstein’s ranch. The state said it had put that case on hold at the request of federal prosecutors in New York, who were carrying out the second investigation into Epstein’s sex-trafficking scheme, which led to his arrest.New Mexico state legislators have also established a “truth commission” to examine activity at the ranch.The sprawling 10,000-acre (4,000-hectare) ranch is located outside Santa Fe, New Mexico, and for years, Epstein allegedly abused teenage girls and young women there with impunity, according to testimony from several women. Survivors detailed a range of horrors that they said unfolded at the isolated plot of land, according to court proceedings.It was a location where powerful men allegedly visited, including a former New Mexico governor, and it was also the proposed setting for Epstein’s reported plans to spread his DNA across the human race by impregnating as many women as possible.The Guardian’s investigation last month revealed that, prior to the state’s recent reopening of its case, there appeared to be no active criminal investigations into the ranch.Investigating the ranch seven years after Epstein’s arrest poses significant challenges. The long delay likely means “the value of anything that they can find would be minimal”, John Day, a New Mexico defense attorney and former prosecutor, recently told The Guardian. “You don’t know what has happened between the time Epstein was last there and the time the new people bought it, so that’s a problem.”A search would also be unlikely to uncover forensic evidence, Kate Mangels, a partner with firm Kinsella Holley Iser Kump Steinsapir, said before the announcement on Monday of the search. But an investigation of the property could potentially bolster survivors’ accounts, she added: “If the layout of the house hasn’t changed, and they’re saying: ‘I have a recollection of someone coming through the bathroom door on the left side of the room,’ and the search demonstrates that that’s where it is, it gives more credence to that testimony of that victim.”In its announcement of the search, the state justice department thanked the current property owners for their cooperation and urged the public to stay away from the area. Officials did not provide further details about the search, saying: “The New Mexico Department of Justice will continue to keep the public appropriately informed, support the survivors, and follow the facts wherever they lead.”