Jeffrey Epstein's New Mexico Ranch Built by Classified Contractor with Government Ties

Jeffrey Epstein purchased Zorro Ranch, a 10,000-acre property in the New Mexico desert, from former Democratic Governor Bruce King in 1993. He then commissioned Bradbury Stamm Construction, a prominent commercial contractor with deep ties to government and classified projects, to build a secluded residence on the land.

Bradbury Stamm, the largest industrial commercial contractor in New Mexico, is primarily known for constructing facilities at Los Alamos National Laboratory and Kirtland Air Force Base. However, the company took on the unusual task of building Epstein a mansion, complete with a sprawling courtyard, a private airstrip with hangar and helipad, a ranch office, a firehouse, and a seven-bay heated garage.

According to journalist and author Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, Bradbury Stamm is not typically involved in private residential construction. Yet the company’s telephone number was listed among Epstein’s personal contacts in unredacted pages of his phone book, as released by the Justice Department.

The motives behind Bradbury Stamm’s involvement in the Zorro Ranch project remain unclear. Valdes-Rodriguez speculates that the company’s work may be connected to Ghislaine Maxwell’s father, Robert Maxwell, who allegedly penetrated New Mexico’s nuclear weapons labs with backdoored spy software on behalf of Israeli military intelligence in the mid-1980s, according to FBI files and testimony from Rafael Eitan, former Mossad operations chief.

Zorro Ranch, located about 30 miles south of Santa Fe in the high desert, became a focal point of controversy during Epstein’s ownership. Several of his victims, including Virginia Giuffre, alleged they were trafficked at the estate. Documents released by the Justice Department via the Epstein files include emails from ranch staff claiming that Epstein ordered the killing and burial of at least two girls beneath the property. Additionally, Epstein reportedly considered converting the ranch into a headquarters for genetic engineering experiments.

The property has since changed ownership. In 2023, it was purchased by Donald Huffines, a former Texas state senator and candidate for comptroller as a self-styled “Trump Republican.” The Huffines family renamed the estate Rancho San Rafael.

In 2019, the Trump administration intervened in a New Mexico investigation into the property. More recently, in February 2024, New Mexico lawmakers voted unanimously to establish a bipartisan “truth commission” to examine the ranch’s history. New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez also ordered his office to reopen the criminal investigation into Zorro Ranch, demanding “immediate access to the complete, unredacted federal case file.”