The New Mexico Investigation
Following Epstein’s death in August 2019, the Office of the New Mexico Attorney General launched an investigation into activities at Zorro Ranch, Epstein’s 10,000-acre compound near Stanley, New Mexico. The investigation was prompted by survivor accounts, media reporting, and the general heightening of scrutiny around all Epstein properties that followed his July 2019 arrest.
New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas announced the investigation in 2019 and subsequently filed a civil lawsuit against Epstein’s estate in 2020, alleging that Epstein had engaged in sex trafficking and labor trafficking on New Mexico soil.
Sex Trafficking at Zorro Ranch
Multiple victims named Zorro Ranch as a location where they had been abused. Annie Farmer — who testified at the Maxwell trial under her own name — described being taken to Zorro Ranch when she was sixteen years old and being abused there. Her account established specific evidence of sex trafficking at the New Mexico property, separate from the Florida and New York evidence that was more extensively developed in federal proceedings.
The geographic extent of Epstein’s abuse operation — documented at a minimum in Florida, New York, New Mexico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Paris — was important to establishing the interstate and international character of the trafficking offenses.
Labor Trafficking Allegations
The New Mexico investigation also focused on labor practices at the ranch. Zorro Ranch was a working operation requiring significant staff for maintenance, security, animal care, and domestic operations. The remote location — far from any city, down private roads, accessible primarily by car or private aircraft — created conditions of geographic isolation for workers employed there.
Allegations examined by investigators included claims that some workers brought to the ranch, including some from abroad, had been brought under circumstances involving misrepresentation of their work conditions, restrictions on their ability to leave freely, and possession of their travel documents by Epstein or his representatives — all characteristics consistent with labor trafficking under federal and New Mexico law.
The Workers’ Visa Situation
Some workers at Zorro Ranch were foreign nationals. The visa and work authorization situation of these workers was examined as part of the investigation. Reports indicated that some workers had entered the country on categories of visa that did not straightforwardly authorize the types of work they were performing, or that their immigration paperwork had not been properly managed.
New Mexico Civil Lawsuit
The New Mexico Attorney General’s civil lawsuit against the Epstein estate sought damages under New Mexico trafficking statutes and other cause of action. The case named Ghislaine Maxwell as a participant in the trafficking activities.
The lawsuit’s filing was part of the broader pattern of state-level legal action against the Epstein estate that paralleled the USVI action and various private civil suits. Unlike the USVI action, the New Mexico case did not result in a publicly announced settlement by the time of available reporting, and the status of the case continued to evolve through the estate proceedings.
Significance
The Zorro Ranch investigation expanded the documented geographic scope of Epstein’s trafficking operation to include a southwestern United States location rarely associated with international trafficking networks. It established that the labor trafficking dimension of Epstein’s operation — subjecting workers to coercive conditions at remote properties — was not limited to the USVI islands but was a pattern deployed in mainland U.S. locations as well.