The New Mexico Department of Justice said Wednesday it is investigating an allegation in documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice that a deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein Ordered the bodies of two foreign girls to be buried outside his remote New Mexico ranch.New Mexico’s Department of Justice asked the U.S. Department of Justice to provide an unredacted copy of a 2019 email containing the allegation, Reuters reported.
“We are actively investigating this allegation and conducting a broader review based on the latest information released by the U.S. Department of Justice,” Rodriguez said in an email responding to inquiries about the case.A day earlier, the New Mexico Legislature launched its first full investigation into allegations that Epstein sexually abused girls and women for more than two decades at Zorro Ranch, 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Santa Fe. Pressure from Democratic lawmakers to reveal Epstein’s crimes has become a major political challenge for President Donald Trump.The redacted 2019 email, included in the latest release of Epstein-related documents from the U.S. Department of Justice, was sent months after Epstein’s death to New Mexico radio host Eddy Aragon, who discussed Zorro Ranch on his show.The sender, who claimed to be a former Zorro Ranch employee, demanded a bitcoin in exchange for videos that the emails said were taken from Epstein’s home and showed the financier having sex with minors.Aragon said in a phone interview that he believed the email was legitimate and immediately forwarded it to the FBI. He said he has not received any payment from the sender nor has he had any further contact with the sender, and despite his first recent attempt to reply, the address no longer works.Redacted emails to Aragon said two foreign girls had been buried “somewhere outside Zorro” on Epstein’s orders and that they had been “strangled to death during rough, fetishistic sex”.Also included in Epstein’s newly released documents is a 2021 FBI report that says Aragorn went to the FBI office to report the email, which provided seven videos of sexual abuse and the location of two foreign girls buried at Zorro Ranch in exchange for a bitcoin.A Reuters search of other documents disclosed by the Justice Department found no other mention of the allegations in the redacted emails or investigators’ version of their claims.The Justice Department warned last year that some of the documents it disclosed in the Epstein investigation “contain untrue and sensational allegations,” including anonymous accusations that investigators had not substantiated or, in some cases, were determined to be false.New Mexico Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard said in an interview Wednesday that her office discovered the redacted email during a recent search of Epstein’s newly released documents.In a Feb. 10 letter and statement to the U.S. Department of Justice, Garcia Richard called on federal and state judicial officials to fully investigate the criminal allegations surrounding the Epstein ranch and adjoining state lands.In 1993, Epstein leased approximately 1,243 acres (503 hectares) of state land surrounding the ranch. Garcia canceled the lease in September 2019 after her office determined that Epstein was not using the land for ranching or agriculture, but rather as a privacy buffer around the ranch.Epstein died in a New York prison in August 2019. His death was ruled a suicide.
