More than 30 firearms vanished from Jeffrey Epstein’s secluded Zorro Ranch in late August 2018, and newly surfaced records now suggest staff quietly routed a detailed weapons inventory to Epstein’s attorney instead of handing serial numbers to state investigators. That detour left the stash effectively untraceable and helped bring the original inquiry to a halt, a problem investigators are trying to fix as New Mexico reopens its probe this year.
According to reporting by the Daily Dot, a New Mexico State Police report on the August 27, 2018 burglary notes that a “very large gun safe” disappeared from the ranch, with an estimated 30 to 40 handguns, rifles and antique firearms locked inside. The report shows the investigating officer repeatedly asking for serial numbers and never getting them, and the file was ultimately closed after follow-up calls went unanswered.
Inventory Routed Through Epstein’s Lawyer
Emails from Justice Department files show ranch staff pulled together a detailed list of the missing guns, complete with serial numbers and photos, then sent it up the management chain. As outlined by Epstein Exposed, Epstein replied instructing staff to “send to darren all communication from here on through him,” directing the stolen-weapons inventory to his attorney instead of to the New Mexico State Police investigator who had asked for it.
The state police file shows Officer Jordan Burd making repeated calls in September 2018 that were never returned, and the Daily Dot reports he closed the case on September 25, 2018 after failing to obtain the serial numbers. Without those identifiers, the weapons were never entered into national tracing systems and remain untracked in law enforcement databases, according to the reporting.
New Mexico Reopens the Probe
The gun theft and the now-public email trail helped spur New Mexico’s decision to reopen its inquiry earlier this year. State prosecutors, acting on orders from Attorney General Raúl Torrez, carried out a court-authorized search of the ranch in March 2026, according to the AP. Lawmakers have also created a bipartisan truth commission to dig into past activity at the property and scrutinize its records.
Why The Missing Serial Numbers Matter
Serial numbers are the linchpin for tracking recovered firearms and tying specific guns to prior thefts or crimes, the ATF National Tracing Center explains. Producing the Zorro Ranch inventory would let investigators run traces and potentially generate fresh leads. As The Guardian notes, the state commission has subpoena power that could be used to force production of records from Epstein’s estate lawyers or anyone else holding the inventory.
What’s Next
The New Mexico Department of Justice has said it will keep the public updated as the search and document review move forward, according to the AP. Investigators say a practical priority is finally getting the serial numbers into national systems such as NCIC and the ATF’s tracing databases. Until that inventory is produced or pried loose through subpoenas, reporting indicates the roughly three-dozen guns taken in 2018 remain off the books and untraceable, a gap prosecutors say could matter if any of the weapons turn up in other criminal cases.
