Dozens of guns were reportedly stolen from Jeffrey Epstein’s Zorro Ranch in 2018 — but his staff refused to cooperate when police tried to investigate.
Much of the 32-weapon arsenal was stolen from a “very large gun safe” in a garage at the pedo’s mysterious New Mexico property, while some were also snatched from two other buildings on the grounds in August 2018, a New Mexico State Police report obtained by the Santa Fe New Mexican showed.
The buildings had apparently been broken into, with at least one window smashed in the garage. Tire tracks were also found cutting across the desert grounds and leading to a slashed-open fence.
Epstein simply replied “Wild” when informed over email about the break-in.
Reports about the break-in come as New Mexico investigators are in the midst of the first extensive investigation into Zorro Ranch — located south of Santa Fe — which was largely sparked by anonymous allegations that Epstein and his cohorts strangled women to death during “rough fetish sex” on the property and buried their bodies there.
Survivors of Epstein’s abuse have also told tales about hearing talk of bizarre human breeding experiments being conducted on the isolated property.
The burglary happened at Zorro almost a year before Epstein’s suicide in a New York City jail after being arrested for sex trafficking.
His ranch staff reported the break-in to police and catalogued the stolen weapons’ serial numbers — but when police asked for the list and tried to press the investigation, they were suddenly stonewalled.
Staff then refused to provide further details on the break-in over weeks of follow-up from authorities. The investigation was closed after a month due to the staff’s refusal to cooperate, the New Mexican reported.
It remains unclear if Epstein told the staff to not speak to police, but emails released in the FBI’s Epstein Files showed he directed ranch managers to a lawyer.
“Please advise if we are to forward the list of stollen weapons to Office Byrd of NM State Police, so serial numbers extra can be sent to pawn shops, gun shows etc, in the hope that something will turn up,” the manager wrote, with Epstein then referring them to his lawyer.
The stolen weapons included rifles, handguns and antique guns, according to the New Mexican.
And Epstein kept that arsenal on his property despite having been barred from owning a gun for 10 years — thanks to his 2008 felony conviction for soliciting a minor for prostitution.
It’s possible his violation of that federally-mandated ban was behind his refusal to talk to police about the burglary.
He apparently flouted those rules brazenly — in addition to the safes full of guns, Zorro Ranch had a shooting range and property trucks were equipped with handguns.
Various young women were also seen firing high-powered guns at the ranch in photos unearthed in the Epstein Files.
The sex trafficker also spared no expense on his lethal collection — various cabinets used to store them were valued at $57,500 and insured as “fine art” by 2013, the New Mexican reported.
He did appear to tread lightly around the weapons restrictions in the years immediately after his conviction.
In 2011 Epstein was permitting staff members to carry guns, but claimed he personally would not “due to the conviction/felony,” according to an email he sent.
But he also seemed to find workarounds.
When asked in 2010 if staff should remove guns from the property before he arrived, Epstein said yes — but simply directed them to move them to a house on the land which was owned by a staff member, thereby following the restriction while keeping the weapons nearby.
Having guns on a remote wilderness ranch is not inherently strange — the New Mexico desert is rife with dangerous wildlife like rattlesnakes, while the state frequently has one of the highest burglary rates in the country.
But the accounts from Epstein victims who were abused at Zorro Ranch could paint a cadre of staff armed by an arsenal of weapons in a much different light.
“Zorro Ranch was probably the most eerie, just giant and quiet and literally in the middle of nowhere, and miles and miles of just mountains and dirt for miles,” Epstein accuser Chauntae Davies told 60 Minutes Australia Sunday.
“There was a lot of time being in my room like a mouse in a trap. Waiting for a knock on the door and for someone to say, ‘Jeffrey is ready for his massage now.’”