US authorities probed possible narcotics links in Epstein case

A newly unearthed US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) document from the Justice Department’s files on Jeffrey Epstein reveals that the disgraced financier was the subject of a previously undisclosed narcotics-related investigation, raising fresh questions about the scope of his alleged criminal activity, CBS News reports.

The 69-page memo, dated 2015 and marked “law enforcement sensitive,” outlines a more than five-year probe targeting Epstein and 14 other individuals over suspicious financial transactions potentially linked to illegal drug and prostitution activities. “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,” the document states. The names of the other targets and much of the investigative detail remain heavily redacted.

The memo appears to stem from a DEA request to the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces Fusion Center in Virginia for intelligence-sharing assistance. A law enforcement source noted that opening such a case would require a “drug nexus,” adding that the request suggested a “significant” investigation rather than a routine inquiry.

The document lists a DEA case number and indicates the investigation was opened in New York on December 17, 2010. It describes the matter as “judicial pending” as of 2015. One source said that designation could indicate investigators were awaiting court approval for warrants or other legal action, while another suggested it may have reflected an arrest connected to the case.

Separate from the DEA probe, a 2018 investigation by the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York led to Epstein’s July 2019 arrest on sex trafficking charges. Prosecutors involved in that case said they were unaware of the earlier DEA investigation. Epstein died in federal custody in August 2019; his death was ruled a suicide.

The memo also references other previously unknown investigations involving agencies including ICE and the FBI, as well as approximately $50 million in suspicious wire transfers between 2010 and 2015.

Senator Ron Wyden, who has pursued financial aspects of the case, said: “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.”

By Vafa Guliyeva