What's next for Epstein's Zorro Ranch, where accusers say they were raped and trafficked

Jeffrey Epstein's massive 21,000-square-foot New Mexico mansion sits high on a mesa overlooking nearly 10,000 acres of desert land halfway between Santa Fe and Albuquerque. Multiple women say they were recruited and sexually abused by the convicted pedophile and his alleged co-conspirators at Zorro Ranch, which they say was integral to Epstein's alleged sex trafficking operation. Several of Epstein's accusers say they were trafficked and raped on the ranch. It is also where Epstein, according to the New York Times, confided to scientists that "he hoped to seed the human race with his DNA by impregnating women at his vast New Mexico ranch." Zorro Ranch, which includes a firehouse, log cabin, guest house, pool, airstrip, antique railroad car and train tracks, is part private, part public land. But New Mexico state officials say Epstein was so secretive about the ranch that they have virtually no access and little knowledge about what happens on the public portions. The property appears to have been designed to create as much privacy as possible. The sprawling compound is tightly guarded with surveillance cameras, well-secured gates and fencing and employees who, despite requests, remain tight-lipped and appear to avoid interaction with any potential visitors. That recently included New Mexico Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard when she made an unannounced visit to the property after her office's requests to schedule a visit went unreturned. The state Land Commission has two land-lease contracts with Zorro Ranch; 1,200 acres of state property lie within Epstein's 10,000 acres of property. That public land is leased by Zorro Ranch, a cause for concern for Garcia Richard who insists the state should not be in business with a convicted pedophile.

Land-lease agreements are a common practice among states for the purposes of encouraging agriculture and ranching. But Garcia Richard recently told CBS News that Epstein's property does not operate as a "typical" ranch, a sentiment echoed by his accusers. The land-lease agreement includes access, which means occasional visits by Land Commission staff to the public property. But the Land Commission said, while this is usually an easy process with their other state land-lessees, it was never as simple when dealing with Zorro Ranch, which appeared to control the terms of any visits by state officials. The public property on Zorro Ranch is surrounded by Epstein's private property and can only be accessed by trekking through the private lands. Garcia Richard told CBS News that ranch staff would require advanced notice of any visits and would escort and tightly monitor officials while on the property. When Epstein purchased Zorro Ranch through his Cypress Inc. holding company in 1993, he acquired the land-lease contracts as part of the sale. When Garcia Richard became land commissioner this year, she inherited oversight of those contracts. Disturbed by allegations of crimes that may have been committed on the ranch, Garcia Richard told CBS News she has been trying to find the legal ground to rip up those contracts ever since.

On Thursday, New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas said he concluded that the state has the legal authority to retake the 1,200 acres of state land on Zorro Ranch associated with the land-lease contracts. Two days before the case was dismissed, Epstein's accusers gave emotional accounts of sexual abuse and torment in what would be a final hearing. One woman, identified as one of the multiple "Jane Does" who spoke that day, recounted being flown to Zorro Ranch for the first time in 2004 when she was 15 years old. She said, upon arriving, the sexual abuse began and continued "for hours" as Epstein took her virginity. Virginia Roberts Giuffre, another Epstein accuser, claimed in a lawsuit that was ultimately settled that she was trafficked to the ranch as an underage sex-slave. A recently unsealed 2016 deposition references Prince Andrew, former U.S. Senator George Mitchell, high-powered attorney Alan Dershowitz and former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson as men she was "directed" to have sex with. Giuffre's legal team told CBS News she was trafficked and lent out for sex on Zorro Ranch. All the men have denied the allegations. The land commission told CBS News it plans to officially terminate the contracts next week, but acknowledges a complicated road may lie ahead. The office tells CBS News it plans to develop creative solutions to access the land, given that state land is surrounded by private land and that ranch employees have been unwilling to give land commission access. The office did not elaborate on those solutions...MORE