Mexican authorities searched Thomas Markle’s abandoned storage unit early Saturday, a day after the Daily Mail alerted the FBI to material it described as suspected child sexual abuse content found inside.
Shortly after midnight local time, Guardia Nacional officers who identified themselves as state sex-crimes investigators entered the 5-by-10-foot unit at a facility about three miles from Markle’s former home in Rosarito.
The operation included forensic computer specialists, a crime-scene investigator and officials from the Baja California state attorney general’s office. The team was seen using flashlights and examining boxes stored inside the cluttered unit.
According to an observer, one officer appeared startled while looking through the contents and said “Ay cabron,” a Spanish expression that can convey shock or alarm.
A search warrant obtained by the Daily Mail states that investigators were authorized to look for “evidence consisting of child sexual abuse material” and possible evidence connected to aggravated human trafficking.
Investigators reportedly cataloged and removed items including a computer, USB drives, VHS tapes and magazines. The unit was then closed and marked with an official seizure notice, according to a source.
Mexican Guardia Nacional sex-crimes investigators searched Thomas Markle’s storage unit in Rosarito on Saturday morning, hours after the Daily Mail reported that potentially criminal material had been found inside
An officer appeared shocked while examining the storage unit’s contents, which the Daily Mail had reported to the FBI
The search at Baja Storage, a gated facility roughly 10 miles south of the US border, followed the Daily Mail’s warning that Unit 22 contained images of nude Asian women and publications allegedly depicting the sexual abuse of children.
After the search, the shipping container was secured with signs reading “Aseguramiento de inmuebles,” indicating that Mexican authorities had seized the property and its contents.
The raid took place only hours after the Daily Mail photographed Markle being moved by wheelchair between care facilities in Lakeland, Florida.
Markle, who previously underwent an amputation after suffering a blood clot and has been diagnosed with a cognitive illness, was accompanied by his daughter Samantha and her boyfriend, Mark Phillips. Both have denied allegations that Markle is a pedophile.
The Daily Mail’s reporting team discovered the storage unit while examining the 82-year-old Markle’s former life in San Antonio del Mar, a gated community popular with expatriates.
The unit was rented to the Duchess of Sussex’s estranged father in 2017. He reportedly fell behind on the rent two years ago and moved to the Philippines in early 2025, leaving the belongings behind.
Staff members and the storage facility’s owner said they had been unaware of the alleged material and expressed disgust after it was discovered.
The Daily Mail accessed Markle’s storage unit after he reportedly stopped making rental payments. Alongside family keepsakes, the unit contained photographs of Asian women who appeared notably young, as well as books and magazines that portrayed children in sexualized terms
Among family photographs, letters and other personal mementoes were black-and-white images of nude Asian women, some of whom appeared notably young, along with books and magazines that allegedly sexualized children as “Lolitas.”
Investigators also found strips of 35mm negatives showing what appeared to be voyeuristic images of children at a beach, as well as dusty VHS tapes bearing titles such as “Boys – Brother and Sister – Russian XX” and “Manila Nites.”
The unit reportedly contained older computers, hard drives and a paper plate marked “DARK WEB” in red ink beside several URLs.
The Daily Mail’s report triggered an immediate inquiry involving authorities in both the United States and Mexico.
FBI agents working out of the Tampa Field Office – close to the Lakeland, Florida, senior-living residence where Markle is staying after having his left leg amputated in December 2025 – are among those working the case.
Also involved are Southern California-based FBI officials whose job it is to coordinate law enforcement activity with their counterparts south of the border.
A grim-faced official with the Mexican Guardia Nacional totes a cardboard box during Saturday’s raid at Thomas Markle’s storage facility
After the raid, the locker was covered with Guardia Nacional signs saying its contents had been seized by police
According to the warrant obtained by the Daily Mail, Mexican state prosecutors asked Judge Estefany Moreno Gutierrez of the Judicial Branch of Baja California to sign off on a search warrant at a closed-door court hearing Friday.
‘The search shall be conducted exclusively for the purpose of searching for, locating and securing evidence consisting of child sexual abuse material that may be in printed form, as well as USB memory devices and memory cards for photographic cameras and cellular telephones,’ the document said.
‘The search shall also seek to locate all communication devices, including cellular telephones, laptops, computers, tablets or any other electronic devices on which videos containing explicit sexual content may be stored.’
At around 4pm Friday a small group of uniformed officers arrived at the depot and asked to speak to the owner who, according to our source, wanted the material removed from his facility as soon as possible.
They took his statement and began inspecting and photographing the metal container’s padlocked door but didn’t open it.
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As the evening wore on, more officers arrived from the Agencia Estatal de Investigacion – Mexico’s State Investigation Agency – while soldiers from the Mexican National Guard were posted outside.
A Mexican Guardia Nacional truck is pictured outside the Rosarito storage facility early Saturday
Armed cops are seen guarding the entrance to the facility during the raid of Thomas Markle’s storage locker
They showed an overnight caretaker the warrant and more than a dozen agents streamed inside at 12.48am. By 3am the raid was over and the convoy of cars drove away.
Public Prosecutor Emmanuel Sabino Sanchez Martinez must now submit a written report to the court within one day, but it’s expected that it will take weeks to examine the seized items.
The discovery of the Mexican storage unit, minutes from Markle’s former home, marks another extraordinary development in a case that could see him facing ten to 12 years in jail if charged and convicted.
The former Hollywood lighting director moved to Rosarito, a quiet coastal enclave popular with American retirees, in 2011.
It was while he was living there that his relationship with his daughter Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, fell apart.
In the lead-up to her 2018 wedding, Markle was caught secretly collaborating with a paparazzi photographer to stage a series of pictures at a time when Prince Harry was urging the media to leave his future father-in-law alone.
Markle relocated again to the Philippines in early 2025, where he is also under investigation after being reported to the police by his own son.
A wider shot of Saturday’s raid shows members of the Guardia Nacional examining the contents of Thomas Markle’s storage locker
Thomas Markle is pictured exiting a care home in Lakeland, Florida, on Friday afternoon
Markle lost one of his legs to a blood clot and has recently been diagnosed with a cognitive condition. He denies the allegations made against him
Thomas Markle Jr, 60, had allegedly found ‘hundreds, if not thousands’ of child sex images in boxes his dad had shipped to the Far East, according to The Sun newspaper.
Wheelchair-bound Markle denies wrongdoing and previously described the allegations as ‘sick lies.’
Just hours before Saturday morning’s raid, he was spotted being pushed between care homes in Florida.
He was accompanied by his eldest daughter, Samantha Markle, 61, the only one of his children with whom he maintains a relationship, and her boyfriend, Mark Phillips.
When a Daily Mail reporter approached her at her home, Phillips defended the elderly Markle, as Samantha sat nearby but did not speak.
‘The only statement that you’re going to get is that Thomas Markle doesn’t even have fingerprints on the stuff in the Philippines,’ said Phillips, 68.
‘He didn’t even ever touch it the whole time it was there, he can’t be charged. Markle never had it in Mexico either … The FBI has no jurisdiction in Mexico.
‘Thomas Markle Sr hasn’t lived in the States in 10 years. Even if there was bad [material] then the statute of limitations ran out five years ago. This is all bulls**t.’
Most of the photos found among 20 storage boxes in the Rosarito unit appear to have been taken when Markle was in his 40s or 50s.
He was 43 when he and Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland, divorced in 1987 after eight years of marriage.
Last week Markle admitted to the Daily Mail that he paid for sex in the Philippines when he was single.
‘I never had sex with anyone under the age of 18,’ he said. ‘I like Asian women but that is not a crime.’
The Duchess of Sussex said last week that she was ‘deeply distressed’ by the allegations engulfing her father in the Philippines.
She has not commented on the developments in Mexico.
The Daily Mail has reached out directly to Thomas Markle Sr for comment.