Newly Unveiled Epstein Documents Suggest Potential Role in Drug Trafficking

Recently unveiled documents have cast a new light on the notorious financier Jeffrey Epstein, suggesting his possible involvement in drug trafficking activities. This revelation comes from a collection of files released by the Department of Justice, which highlight an investigation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) into Epstein and 14 unnamed associates. The probe centered around suspicious money transfers, which authorities suspected could be connected to narcotics trafficking.

A heavily redacted memo from 2015 details the DEA’s findings. It states, “DEA reporting indicates the above individuals are involved in illegitimate wire transfers, which are tied to illicit drug and/or prostitution activities occurring in the US Virgin Islands and New York City.” This investigation focused on nearly $50 million in questionable wire transfers conducted by Epstein and his associates, starting December 17, 2010. Notably, this was two years after Epstein had reached a non-prosecution agreement with federal authorities and nearly a decade before his arrest on federal sex trafficking charges.

Interestingly, sources connected to the case disclosed to CBS News that prosecutors were unaware of this earlier DEA investigation. The lack of knowledge about these prior findings raises questions about the full extent of Epstein’s criminal activities and whether further legal scrutiny could have been applied earlier.

It shows that authorities in New York opened the investigation into nearly $50 million in suspicious wire transfers Epstein and 14 other targets made starting on December 17, 2010 – two years after he reached a non-prosecution agreement with the federal government and nine years before he was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges.

Sources involved in that case told CBS News prosecutors were unaware of this earlier DEA investigation. 

It remains unclear what prompted the DEA to launch the five-year long probe and what may have come of the investigation, as the 2015 document notes that the matter is ‘judicial pending’ and was active at the time it was written.

Much of the details about the investigation are redacted in the file.

But the nearly 70-page memo, which is marked as ‘sensitive but unclassified,’ appears to have stemmed from a request made by the DEA to the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces Fusion Center in Virginia seeking information from other agencies about Epstein and the other targets as part of an active case.

Jeffrey Epstein was once the subject of a Drug Enforcement Agency investigation, newly-released documents show

The DEA wrote that he and 14 other unidentified individuals ‘are involved in illegitimate wire transfers, which are tied to illicit drug and/or prostitution activities occurring in the US Virgin Islands and New York City.’ DEA agents are pictured

The heavily-redacted memo shows that authorities in New York opened the investigation into nearly $50 million in suspicious wire transfers Epstein and 14 other targets made starting on December 17, 2010

The task force was created by former President Ronald Reagan to combat a surge in cocaine trafficking and the Fusion Center was opened in 2009 to more easily allow for intelligence sharing between federal law enforcement agencies. 

For the DEA to open the case there means there would have to be a drug connection, a law enforcement source told CBS News, adding that the request to the Fusion Center indicated it was part of a ‘significant’ investigation rather than a routine information inquiry.

The fact that it was listed as ‘judicial pending’ also may indicate investigators were awaiting court approval for search warrants or other legal action, another law enforcement source said, while a third suggested it meant someone associated with the case had been arrested. 

The alleged co-conspirators in the case were all redacted, except for a Polish model who received approximately $2 million in transfers.

She has since claimed to have been one of Epstein’s victims.

Still, Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, who has been pursuing the Epstein investigation as the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee said following the financier’s expenses is the key to learning more about his crimes.

‘It appears Epstein was involved in criminal activity that went way beyond pedophilia and sex trafficking, which makes it even more outrageous that Pam Bondi is sitting on several million unreleased files,’ he said.

The DEA memo even lays out how Epstein was the subject of three different Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigations.

The document also details how Epstein was the subject of three Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency investigations

The first was opened in West Palm Beach, Florida in 2006 and was closed in 2008, followed by another investigation opened in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2009 that was listed as ‘pending’ as of January 27, 2010.

ICE even investigated Epstein in Paris in June 2013 in what it called Operation Angel, which was closed months later.

The nature of these investigations also remain unclear, though the documents make note that Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida in 2008 on charges of solicitation of prostitution and procurement of minors to engage in prostitution.

He was then convicted of procuring a person under age 18 for prostitution in Florida, the memo notes. 

It further lists how Epstein was investigated by Customs and Border Patrol on multiple occasions, as well as the US Attorney General’s Office in St. Thomas in 2014, Harvard University campus police in 2013 and the Virgin Islands Police Department in 2013.

The memo also lists businesses associated with Epstein that had come under scrutiny in the past, including SLK Designs LLC and Hyperion Air.

Hyperion Air had been used by the financier as a holding company for his plane, while SLK Designs was run by two women who were included in his non-prosecution agreement and were named as potential co-conspirators.

Records obtained by CBS News show both companies were formed and controlled by Epstein’s lawyer Darren Indyke, who has insisted he was not involved in any wrongdoing. 

His attorney Daniel Weiner previously told CBS News that his client ‘did not socialize with Mr Epstein and… rejected as categorically false any suggestion that they knowingly facilitated or assisted Mr Epstein in his sexual abuse or trafficking of women or that they were aware of Mr Epstein’s actions while they provided legal and accounting services to Mr Epstein.’

He added that no judge or court ever found Epstein’s attorneys committed any wrongdoing. 

Epstein corresponded with associates about the contents of his storage units multiple times

New documents make mention of  computers, hard drives and photos stores and transferred between units

The document comes as a bombshell report detailed how Epstein hid hard drives and photos from authorities in multiple storage lockers across the country.

The pedophile rented at least six units, the majority of which were in Florida, paying thousands between 2003 and 2019, according to an investigation by The Telegraph. 

The outlet obtained files and credit card statements detailing Epstein’s various secret hiding places for computers, CDs, pictures and files. 

His lockers could point to answers after authorities long suspected that Epstein received insider information about raids of his properties. 

Former Palm Beach Police Chief Michael Reiter told NBC that during a 2005 search, the sex offender’s place ‘had been cleaned up.’

Epstein allegedly recruited detectives to move documents, photographs and computers to one of his multiple storage lockers.

Uncovered credit card statements suggested that he paid a private detective agency $38,500 from January to May 2010 alone. 

The Daily Mail has reached out to the DEA and Weiner for comment.