Epstein Investigation: New Mexico Takes the Lead

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

by WILL FOLKS

***

With the federal government having completely dropped/hidden the ball in its “investigation” of convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, state and local officials in New Mexico are trying to find it – and pick it up.

Last month, the New Mexico House of Representatives voted unanimously to establish a Truth Commission aimed at putting together “the whole story” of what happened at Zorro Ranch – a secluded desert property located approximately 30 miles south of Sante Fe.

The ranch – currently owned by Texas politician/businessman Don Huffines – includes a 29,000-square foot hacienda-style mansion along with numerous adjacent and adjoining structures, a helipad and an airstrip.

Huffines, incidentally, is a Donald Trump-endorsed candidate for Texas Comptroller who just last week won a Republican primary in the Lone Star State thanks in large part to the backing of Trump’s MAGA movement.

Trump is a former friend of Epstein’s who was named thousands of times in the Epstein Files.

Allegations contained in the Epstein files point to sex trafficking, murder and other horrific acts having been committed at the property – which to this day does not appear to have ever been searched by the feds. One victim claimed Epstein tried to hire her to “birth babies for black market use” at the ranch while a tipster insisted “somewhere in the hills outside Zorro, two foreign girls were buried” on the orders of Epstein and his lover/co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell.

“Both died by strangulation during rough, fetish sex,” the tipster claimed.

***

***

Another alleged victim who spent time at the ranch said Epstein turned her into “a human incubator” as part of his eugenics experiments.

Following a incomplete, dubiously redacted release of selected Epstein files earlier this year, state representative Andrea Romero of New Mexico championed the creation of the Truth Commission to uncover (perhaps literally) what transpired at Zorro Ranch.

After its authorization by the House, this panel was endowed with subpoena power and an initial budget of $2 million.

“We have heard years of allegations and rumors about Epstein’s activities in New Mexico, but unfortunately, federal investigations have failed to put together an official record,” Romero said last month. “With this Truth Commission, we can finally fill in the gaps by investigating the failures that led to the horrific allegations of abuse and crime at Zorro Ranch, so we can learn from them and prevent such atrocities from taking place in our state going forward.”

The commission’s formation comes seven years after federal investigators asked New Mexico authorities to halt their initial investigation into the ranch – a 7,622-acre property purchased by Epstein in 1993 from former New Mexico governor Bruce King.

New Mexico complied, turning over its entire investigative file on the matter to the office of Geoffrey Berman, former U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York. It was Berman who later charged Epstein with sex trafficking of minors in July 2019 – one month before Epstein’s purported suicide in a Manhattan jail.

***

RELATED | EPSTEIN FILES: DEATH OF TRUTH

***

Former New Mexico attorney general Hector Balderas said federal prosecutors “gutted” his state’s initial Zorro probe – failing to “disclose or share” information in their possession about alleged criminal activities that occurred there. Not only that, Balderas said the feds failed to act on the state’s recommendation to seize the property and search it thoroughly.

Balderas’ former deputy – current New Mexico judge Clara Moran – sent a letter to Berman’s office in July 2020 expressly urging federal authorities to seize the ranch given its clear nexus to alleged criminality.

“We believe that this ranch was used by Epstein and others to facilitate the commission and prolonged concealment of his trafficking of children,” the letter noted.

While the feds searched Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse and his notorious “Pedo Island” in the U.S. Virgin Islands, as of this writing there is no evidence federal agents ever conducted a search of the Zorro property.

Perhaps more ominously, according to reporter Olivier Uyttebrouck of The Albuquerque Journal, “none of the investigative records provided by New Mexico appear to be among the more than 3 million pages of documents released last month by the U.S. Department of Justice.”

This week – acting on orders from the New Mexico Department of Justice (NMDOJ) and the state’s attorney general, Raúl Torrez – officers of the New Mexico State Police (NMSP) and the Sandoval County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) searched the property as part of the Truth Commission’s ongoing investigation.

***

“At the direction of attorney general Torrez, the New Mexico Department of Justice initiated a search this morning of the Zorro Ranch property previously owned by Jeffrey Epstein, with the New Mexico State Police and Sandoval County Sheriff’s Office providing assistance,” a statement from NMDOJ noted. “This search is part of the criminal investigation announced by the New Mexico Department of Justice on February 19th into allegations of illegal activity at Epstein’s ranch prior to Epstein’s 2019 death.”

NMDOJ said it would “continue to keep the public appropriately informed, support the survivors, and follow the facts wherever they lead.”

It also announced NMDOJ was seeking “credible information from members of the public who may have knowledge relevant to events that occurred in New Mexico.” Anyone in possession of such information was encouraged to submit a tip.

New Mexico congresswoman Melanie Stansbury previously viewed some of the unredacted Epstein files related to Zorro Ranch.

“There aren’t words to describe what are in those files,” Stansbury said last month, adding she spent “a fair amount of my time looking at the files on Zorro Ranch.”

“The FBI never did a full forensic investigation of the ranch property and it’s clear that crimes were committed there and people knew about it,” Stansbury added.

Why the alleged coverup?

***

RELATED | EPSTEIN FALLOUT: PRINCE ANDREW ARRESTED

***

As previously noted, Epstein is widely suspected of operating as an intelligence asset – meaning the various atrocities he engaged in were on some level sanctioned by governments (and more likely than not our government) as part of a massive kompromat operation. Also, British media tycoon Robert Maxwell – the father of Ghislaine Maxwell – was widely believed to have been an Israeli asset, specifically an operative in the employ of its Mossad intelligence agency.

Epstein himself seemed to acknowledge as much in an email (.pdf) sent to an unknown recipient in March of 2018. Entitled “he was passed away,” the email related four quotes about Robert Maxwell – including one in which he was alleged to have been killed because he “threatened Mossad.”

“He told them that unless they gave him £400 (million) to save his crumbling empire, he would expose all he had done for them,” one of the quotes noted.

Robert Maxwell died under suspicious circumstances on his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine, on November 5, 1991. As for his now-infamous daughter, she was convicted in December 2021 on five counts related to the sex trafficking of minor children. In June 2022, she was sentenced to twenty years in federal prison.

“The evidence at trial established that Ms, Maxwell directly and repeatedly and over the course of many years participated in a horrific scheme to entice, transport and traffic underage girls, some as young as 14, for sexual abuse by and with Jeffrey Epstein,” her sentencing judge noted.

Prior to his 2019 arrest, Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida to one count of procuring a child for prostitution and one count of soliciting a prostitute – and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. He served only thirteen months, however, and was granted all manner of privileges during his term of “incarceration.” In fact, it was following his conviction and during his “incarceration” that he exchanged emails with a South Carolina beauty queen – one of many Palmetto State connections to this scandal.

Epstein’s controversial sweetheart deal, negotiated by former Trump labor secretary Alexander Acosta, shut down a sprawling federal investigation into his trafficking of minor girls to influential leaders – and later resulted in the former prosecutor resigning in disgrace from his cabinet post.

During his vetting process for labor secretary, Acosta claimed Epstein “belonged to intelligence” and that he was told to “leave (the case) alone.”

Count on FITSNews to keep our audience apprised of significant developments related to the Epstein case – and to continue digging through the files for additional Palmetto State connections.

***

ABOUT THE AUTHOR…

Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.

***

WANNA SOUND OFF?

Got something you’d like to say in response to one of our articles? Or an issue you’d like to address proactively? We have an open microphone policy! Submit your letter to the editor (or guest column) via email HERE. Got a tip for a story? CLICK HERE. Got a technical question or a glitch to report? CLICK HERE.