At least a dozen members of Customs and Border Protection and the FBI landed on Jeffrey Epstein’s infamous Little St. James — nicknamed “Pedophile Island” — in the U.S. Virgin Islands on Monday, two days after the accused child sex trafficker was found dead in his Manhattan prison cell in an apparent suicide.
Multiple news outlets captured video and photos of the agents landing at the island’s dock by boat, with some agents then getting into golf carts while other agents appeared to search the surrounding water in scuba gear.
“Yes, we’re on the island,” an FBI spokesperson told the Washington Examiner. “But we can’t provide any further detail unfortunately.”
Alleged victims of Epstein claim that the island was used to have sex with underage girls. Besides the island, Epstein owned a mansion in Manhattan, an estate in Palm Beach, a ranch in New Mexico, and an apartment in Florida.
The Bureau of Prisons said Saturday that Epstein was found unresponsive in his cell, but NYC’s medical examiner is still investigating the cause of death.
This morning, Barr said he was appalled to find out about Epstein’s death and said he was already “learning of serious irregularities at this facility that are deeply concerning” and that he had demanded “a thorough investigation.” Barr vowed that the probe into Epstein will continue and warned that Epstein’s co-conspirators “should not rest easy.”
Prosecutors in the Southern District of New York said Saturday that their investigation remains ongoing.
Epstein, a convicted sex offender and jet-setting financier, was alleged to have sexually exploited and abused dozens of underage girls at his homes in Manhattan and Palm Beach, Florida, among other locations, between 2002 and 2005 and perhaps beyond. Prosecutors claimed that Epstein enticed and recruited minor girls for sex and built a “vast network of underage victims.”
Epstein’s arrest in July marked the second time he had been investigated for sex crimes. Alex Acosta, the former U.S. attorney for Southern Florida who resigned as Trump’s labor secretary, reached a controversial agreement in 2008 with Epstein’s attorneys in which Epstein was allowed to plead guilty to state-level prostitution solicitation charges. Epstein served just 13 months in a Palm Beach County jail with work release, paid some restitution, and registered as a sex offender. The secret agreement was reportedly struck before investigators finished interviewing all the alleged victims.
The wealthy financier was arrested at the airport in New Jersey just over a month ago after returning from an overseas trip to Paris. Epstein’s home in New York City was raided by law enforcement as well, and investigators found nude photographs of underage girls, thousands of dollars in cash, dozens of loose diamonds, and a foreign passport from the 1980s with Epstein’s picture and a false name.
The federal judge in the case said that Epstein poses a “significant” danger to the community and agreed with prosecutors that he is “a serious risk of flight.” Bail was denied, and Epstein was ordered to remain incarcerated until his trial started sometime next summer.
