Former New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas has alleged that federal prosecutors interfered with his office's investigation into Jeffrey Epstein's Zorro Ranch in New Mexico.

According to Balderas, his team was actively building a state criminal case in 2019 and had been interviewing survivors connected to the property when officials from the U.S.Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York contacted him.

Balderas said federal prosecutors expressed concerns about overlapping interviews with potential witnesses who were expected to participate in their own prosecution of Epstein.

Based on assurances that evidence would later be shared and that New Mexico would have an opportunity to pursue state-level charges, Balderas agreed to pause the investigation.He now claims those promises were never fulfilled and that federal authorities did not act in good faith.Balderas stated that, in hindsight, he would have continued the state case independently.

The ranch, located south of Santa Fe, has been linked to allegations from multiple women and girls who say they were groomed, sexually abused, or trafficked there.Additional allegations associated with the property include forced births and eugenics-related activities.

The article also references an anonymous tip received in 2019 alleging that the bodies of two foreign girls were buried on the ranch, though that information reportedly was not entered into the FBI system until 2021 and was never shared with Balderas' office.Federal authorities never executed a search warrant at the ranch, although New Mexico investigators searched the property earlier this year.

Following the release of millions of Epstein-related documents by the Department of Justice, New Mexico reopened its investigation, while a bipartisan Truth Commission has begun issuing subpoenas related to the Epstein estate and associated organizations.