New Mexico searches Epstein''s Zorro Ranch after FBI files reveal new leads

Jeffrey Epstein purchased the Zorro Ranch in Stanley, 🌶️New Mexico in 1993 from former Democratic Governor Bruce King for approximately $1 million. He built a hilltop mansion, guest quarters, a private airstrip, a helipad, and multiple outbuildings on the 7,600-acre high-desert property 30 miles south of Santa Fe. The ranch was among Epstein's most isolated properties — significantly more remote than his Manhattan townhouse, Palm Beach mansion, and the private island of Little St. James in the U.S. Virgin Islands. That isolation made it both a useful venue for activities he wanted hidden and, paradoxically, harder to investigate: few witnesses lived nearby, local law enforcement was less resourced than federal authorities in 🗽New York and 🌴Florida, and the remoteness reduced the likelihood of incidental documentation. Epstein used the ranch as a destination for guests flown in on his private jet, referred to in court documents as the 'Lolita Express,' with staff including a rotating series of young women described in court filings as 'masseuses.'

The failure to search Zorro Ranch in 2019 is the central accountability gap the current investigation is trying to address. When Epstein was arrested in July 2019 and charged with sex trafficking of minors, federal authorities from the Southern District of 🗽New York searched his Manhattan townhouse and seized hard drives containing thousands of images. Palm Beach law enforcement had been investigating Epstein since 2005. U.S. Virgin Islands authorities later executed searches of Little St. James island and sued Epstein's estate for $190 million, eventually settling for $105 million. Zorro Ranch alone was never searched. 🌶️New Mexico had opened a state investigation and confirmed it had interviewed possible victims who visited the ranch. Federal prosecutors in New York then asked New Mexico to stand down to avoid parallel investigations. Three months later, Epstein was dead. With no defendant to prosecute, New York let the case wind down — and New Mexico was never given the green light to resume its own investigation.

The DOJ's release of millions of Epstein investigation files in late January 2026 — totaling more than 200,000 pages — contained several items specific to Zorro Ranch that had not been previously reported. The most disturbing was an anonymous email received in 2019 by Albuquerque radio host EAEddy Aragon, who had been publicly discussing the ranch. The email claimed that 'somewhere in the hills outside the Zorro, two foreign girls were buried on orders of Jeffrey and Madam G.' — a reference to GMGhislaine Maxwell — and claimed they 'died by strangulation during rough, fetish sex.' The email offered to provide further information for one Bitcoin payment. The files also contained a 2019 email from a retired 🌶️New Mexico State Police officer flagging a barn on the property as 'suspicious,' describing a 'sally port'-style garage door arrangement and a chimney unusual for an agricultural outbuilding. Whether either tip had been investigated by the FBI before the files were released is unclear from the documents.

BGBrice Gordon, identified in the released FBI files as a former ranch manager, told investigators that Epstein regularly flew in guests and 'masseuses' to the property. Gordon's account was consistent with victim testimony in court proceedings and depositions. AFAnnie Farmer, one of Epstein's named victims, has testified that she was sexually abused at the Zorro Ranch as a teenager. Several other victims who testified in proceedings related to GMGhislaine Maxwell's 2021 trafficking conviction described being brought to the ranch. The ranch's guest logs — which Epstein maintained meticulously at other properties, producing the 'Little Black Book' of contacts that became central to the case — have not been publicly disclosed or confirmed as part of the seized evidence.

The bipartisan 🌶️New Mexico truth commission created by the state legislature has subpoena power — a tool that distinguishes it from the state AG's criminal investigation, which must meet probable cause standards and follow rules of evidence. A truth commission can compel testimony and document production from witnesses who might otherwise invoke the Fifth Amendment or refuse to cooperate, and can hold public hearings that create a record beyond what a criminal prosecution requires. Democratic Rep. Melanie Stansbury posted publicly that 'justice for the Epstein survivors is not a partisan issue,' reflecting the unusual bipartisan agreement that drove the commission's creation. New Mexico passed the commission after federal prosecutors shut down the 2019 state investigation — a decision state officials described as leaving New Mexico's own victims without justice.

The current owners of Zorro Ranch, the Huffines family, purchased the property in 2023 from Epstein's estate for a price that was not publicly disclosed. The estate had sold it with proceeds going to creditors — including funds directed toward the Epstein Victims' Compensation Program. Don Huffines, the family patriarch, had recently won a Republican primary for 🤠Texas state comptroller. His family's decision to fully cooperate with investigators represented a departure from the prior owners' attitude and was widely noted by advocates who had spent years pushing for the ranch to be examined. The cooperation also reduced the legal obstacles that might have required investigators to obtain warrants for each building — a process that would take significantly longer on a 7,600-acre property.

The Epstein files released in January 2026 included, separately from the Zorro Ranch items, an allegation that then-President-elect Trump was named by a woman in an undisclosed deposition. That item — distinct from the Zorro Ranch search — had been released separately in early March. The two disclosures happening in close temporal proximity created confusion in public coverage between what was specifically new about the ranch investigation and what related to other Epstein allegations. The Zorro Ranch search on March 10 was specifically about 🌶️New Mexico state criminal allegations — separate from any federal investigations, Maxwell's conviction, or the broader Epstein client network allegations.