Federal prosecutors in 2019 asked New Mexico officials to halt their investigation into sex trafficking activities at Jeffrey Epstein’s Zorro Ranch, agreeing to share information that potentially could have led to criminal charges here.

New Mexico lived up to its end of the agreement, ending its investigation and providing police reports, recorded witness interviews and other investigative records to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, former Attorney General Hector Balderas said last week. Hector Balderas

Balderas, who served as attorney general from 2014 to 2022, said he is unaware that federal investigators provided any information to New Mexico officials that could have led to criminal prosecutions here.

Cooperation between the two agencies “was a one-way relationship,” he said.

Records released in January by the U.S. Department of Justice related to the Epstein investigation, including letters and emails between Balderas’ office and federal prosecutors, shed light on New Mexico’s decision to scrap its investigation.

The request by federal prosecutors essentially “gutted” New Mexico’s investigation into sex trafficking at Epstein’s 7,500-acre Zorro Ranch located 30 miles south of Santa Fe, Balderas said. Balderas now is president of Northern New Mexico College in Española.

“We provided information to them to strengthen their prosecution,” he said. Prosecutors made assurances they would provide findings to New Mexico investigators. “They were making the representation that they were going to prosecute with a multijurisdictional, multistate focus.”

Balderas’ office also sent a letter in 2020 urging federal prosecutors to seize control of Zorro Ranch to preserve evidence, records show. Balderas said he also offered to assist serving search warrants at the ranch but never received a response and has no reason to believe prosecutors acted on the requests.

Federal prosecutors asked New Mexico to halt its investigation to avoid “risks of parallel investigations creating inconsistent statements” that defense attorneys could exploit, Balderas said.

None of the investigative records provided by New Mexico appear to be among the more than 3 million pages of documents released last month by the U.S. Department of Justice.

“In light of the recent disclosures, I remain very concerned that they did not disclose or share more information that they had in their possession,” Balderas said of federal investigators. He called the failure to work with state and state investigators “a tactical mistake.”