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SANTA FE, N.M. — <\/span>State investigators began searching a secluded ranch in New Mexico on Monday where financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein once entertained guests amid allegations that the property may have been used for sexual abuse and sex trafficking of young women.<\/p>\n The office of state Attorney General Ra\u00fal Torrez announced that the search was being done with the cooperation of the current ranch owners.<\/p>\n Torrez last month reopened an investigation of the ranch<\/a>. New Mexico\u2019s initial case was closed in 2019 at the request of federal prosecutors in New York, and state prosecutors say now that \u201crevelations outlined in the previously sealed FBI files warrant further examination.\u201d<\/p>\n Epstein purchased the sprawling Zorro Ranch<\/a> in Stanley, New Mexico, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Santa Fe, in 1993 from former Democratic Gov. Bruce King and built a hilltop mansion with a private runway.<\/p>\n The property was sold by Epstein\u2019s estate in 2023 \u2014 with proceeds going toward creditors \u2014 to the family of Don Huffines, a candidate in Texas for state comptroller who won the Republican primary last week.<\/p>\n \u201cThe New Mexico Department of Justice appreciates the cooperation of the current property owners,\u201d the agency said in a statement. Prosecutors \u201cwill continue to keep the public appropriately informed, support the survivors, and follow the facts wherever they lead.\u201d<\/p>\n Additionally, New Mexico state legislators have established a new commission to look into past activities at the ranch<\/a>.<\/p>\n Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial in 2019 on charges that he sexually abused and trafficked dozens of underage girls.<\/p>\n Epstein never faced charges in New Mexico, but the state attorney general\u2019s office in 2019 confirmed that it had interviewed<\/a> possible victims who visited Epstein’s ranch.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n