New Mexico AG sues Epstein associates over Zorro Ranch sex trafficking

New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez filed a lawsuit Wednesday against former associates of Jeffrey Epstein, accusing them of hiding sex trafficking operations at the notorious Zorro Ranch. The suit targets Darren Indyke and Richard Kahn, alleging they knew about the abuse yet used their roles and Epstein's money to cover it up. WBAL TV reported that both men allegedly leveraged their positions to conceal these dirty operations.

The Department of Justice named Epstein's estate, valued at more than $100 million, and the 1953 Trust as defendants alongside Indyke and Kahn. According to Torrez, the two men managed finances and authorized transactions directly tied to trafficking activities. They told Congress a different story during testimony, claiming innocence while enriching themselves in secret.

Torrez stated that Indyke took home $16 million and Kahn received over $10 million from Epstein between 2011 and 2019. The lawsuit seeks to stop these men from accepting any future payments from the estate because they currently stand to benefit substantially from its assets. 'Those resources rightfully belong in the hands of survivors,' Torrez said.

The remote ranch sits thirty miles south of Santa Fe in a high desert filled with cactus and scrub. It boasted its own airstrip, offering Epstein a perfect hideout where New Mexico historically asked few questions of wealthy residents who demanded privacy. The state's criminal laws were notably lax compared to other places holding his property. New Mexico did not recognize human trafficking as a crime until 2008. Furthermore, the age of consent was set at 16, meaning Epstein did not have to register as a sex offender like he had to elsewhere in the US.

A 60 Minutes Australia interview earlier this year showed alleged abuse on the sprawling property. The Daily Mail also exposed the site's darkest secrets in April. Only four months after Epstein went behind bars in 2019, Eddy Aragon, a local talk show host, got a disturbing email. An anonymous sender claimed to be former staff and said they knew where two bodies were buried in the hills. The note described young foreign girls who died from rough, fetish sex before being strangled on Epstein's orders.

Epstein never faced charges in New Mexico, but the state attorney general did investigate his operations back in 2019. Former Attorney General Hector Balderas admitted that old laws failed to protect children from abuse. The community faces a grim reality now as survivors demand justice for what happened in that isolated desert location.