New Mexico AG Reopens Epstein Probe, Searches Former Zorro Ranch

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez’s office says state investigators launched a search Monday of Jeffrey Epstein’s former Zorro Ranch in Stanley, N.M., working with the cooperation of the property’s new owners as part of a reopened probe into possible sexual abuse and sex trafficking there. The state’s original investigation was shut down in 2019 at the request of federal prosecutors in New York, but Torrez revived it last month, citing “revelations outlined in the previously sealed FBI files” that prosecutors now say warrant further examination. Epstein bought the ranch in 1993 from then‑Democratic Gov. Bruce King and built a secluded hilltop mansion and private runway; it was sold by his estate in 2023 to the family of Don Huffines, a Texas Republican who just won his party’s primary for state comptroller, with proceeds going to creditors. In parallel, New Mexico legislators have created a new commission to examine past activities at the ranch, while the AG’s office pledges to keep the public ‘appropriately informed,’ support survivors, and ‘follow the facts wherever they lead.’ The move revives a long‑dormant strand of the Epstein scandal that critics have said was prematurely buried and raises the prospect that state authorities, rather than federal prosecutors, could finally detail what happened at one of his most secretive U.S. properties.