FBI Raids Jeffrey Epstein's 'Pedophile Island'
Agents land on speedboats to search island following billionaire's death
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A large group of FBI agents has landed on the private island owned by Clinton-linked billionaire Jeffrey Epstein.
Convicted pedophile Epstein was found dead in his prison cell on Saturday morning where he was awaiting trial on child sex trafficking charges.
Speedboats full of feds landed on Epstein's Little St James, US Virgin Islands home, also known as "Pedophile Island" or "Orgy Island," and began searching the property late on Monday.
NYPD investigators and officials with "FBI" lettering on clear display were seen searching buildings and moving around Epstein's remote luxury estate in golf carts.
Divers were also spotted searching the waters around the shore of the island just off the coast of St Thomas.
The search follows Friday's bombshell release of 2,000 pages of documents detailing the lurid allegations of his sexual abuse of underage girls.
The unsealing added more fuel to the fire of the government's case of sex trafficking against Epstein and came just hours before he was found dead in jail.
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According to the Daily Mail, "Pedophile Island" is at the center of an ongoing sex trafficking probe into the criminal financier.
Allegations have been made that underage girls were used as sex slaves and repeatedly abused inside a temple on the island.
Many members of the community believe that Epstein hid young girls he allegedly enslaved in underground rooms below the temple and other parts of the island.
There is no concrete evidence to support that claim, however.
Sources say Epstein flew the girls into St. Thomas then shuttled them over to his island on a boat named after Ghislaine Maxwell, his ex-girlfriend and his alleged "pimp."
The boat was called Lady Ghislaine.
The FBI and NYPD are conducting a raid on Jeffrey Epstein’s "pedophile island" where he’d previously hosted some of the most powerful people in the world. Let’s all pray that the island finds a way of revealing everything those powerful people fear it will.pic.twitter.com/Eois6lkDbP
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) August 12, 2019
The former employee said that guests included Victoria's Secret billionaire Les Wexner, who sold Epstein his Upper East Side home in the 1990s.
The staffer said that he had seen Victoria's Secret models on the island.
Whenever Epstein was there, normally for three to four days at a time, women would sunbathe either nude or topless by the pool as he padded around in shorts and flip flops, they said.
One former employee who declined to be identified said Epstein once had five boats and said he saw a handful of young women when he was on Epstein's property but he believed they were older than 18.
A former air traffic controller at the island's airport told Vanity Fair: "On multiple occasions, I saw Epstein exit his helicopter, stand on the tarmac in full view of my tower, and board his private jet with children—female children.
"One incident in particular really stands out in my mind, because the girls were just so young. They couldn’t have been over 16."
Epstein doubled his property holdings in January 2016 when he paid $18 million for Great St. James, which is nearby Little St. James a few years back.
That 162-acre property is located next to Little St. James, the 71.5-acre island he purchased in 1998 for $7.95 million.
Epstein had plans for Great St. James to include a barge dock, two homes, cottages, an amphitheater, gardens, a marine electrical cable, solar array and generator, storage building, security building, work shed, machine shop, and an "underwater office and pool."
That barge and a few completed structures, as well as construction equipment, are visible in aerial images of the island.
This work has been done despite the fact that only the construction of a flagpole and repair of cisterns has been approved on the island.
And yet next door, his temple remains domeless.
Epstein had erected "No Trespassing" signs throughout around almost all of Great St. James due to the area's popularity with tourists.
Local laws make all land below the tide or bush lines public property, so Epstein couldn't legally kick people off those lands, but he was being vigilant about making sure no one wanders onto his property.
He had made Little St. James his primary residence, but in June the helicopter that shuttles the millionaire and his guests to and from the airport was listed for sale online, with an asking price of $1.8 million
Epstein also sold one of his private jets in June.
His other was seized when he was arrested in July after landing back on US soil following three-week trip to Paris.
In total, Epstein's properties are valued at close to $150 million.
The raid came at the same morning that Attorney General Bill Barr issued a stark warning to Jeffrey Epstein's alleged co-conspirators, telling them they "should not rest easy."
The investigation into Epstein's sex crimes is set to shift its focus following his death to those accused of helping him, in a move that threatens to implicate some of the world's richest, most powerful people.
Speaking at a police event in New Orleans Barr said: "Let me assure you that this case will continue on against anyone who was complicit with Epstein.
"Any co-conspirators should not rest easy.
"The victims deserve justice and they will get it."
He also slammed the handling of Epstein by the Manhattan Correctional Center after it was revealed a corrections officer had not checked on the pedophile for several hours before he hanged himself in his cell in the special housing unit.
Barr, who said he was "appalled" and "angry" at the failure to "adequately secure" Epstein, added: "This sex trafficking case was very important to the Department of Justice and to me personally.
"Most importantly this case was important to the victims who had the courage to come forward and deserve the opportunity to confront the accused in the courtroom.
"I was appalled, and indeed the whole department was, and frankly angry to learn of the MCC's failure to adequately secure this prisoner.
"We are now learning of serious irregularities at this facility that are deeply concerning and demand a thorough investigation.
"We will get to the bottom of what happened and there will be accountability."
Ghislaine Maxwell, the socialite daughter of late media tycoon Robert, is one of those who may find her dealings with the disgraced financier in the spotlight after he was found hanged in his prison cell at Metropolitan Correctional Center on Saturday morning.
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Maxwell, 58, described as the "madam of the house" by a former housekeeper at Epstein's mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, has always denied any wrongdoing but reports now suggest she may even be ready to co-operate with the authorities.
Prosecutors may also target the witnesses who were set to testify against Epstein now that "they don't need them," The New York Post reports.
One source said: "They were getting a deal to testify against Epstein."
According to Miami Herald reporter Julie K. Brown prosecutors "will likely refocus their probe on Maxwell, Sarah Kellen Vickers, Adriana Ross, and Lesley Groff."
They have all been accused of helping to run Epstein's operation and Brown adds: "Another woman, Nadia Marcinkova, was accused of sexually abusing some of the underage girls."
Brown also told MSNBC there are still "thousands and thousands of more documents that are probably going to be released."
She added: "There are so many threads of information and evidence and testimony and witnesses that are contained in those documents that he has a lot to work with there."
Epstein's accusers may also be able to pursue civil cases against his estate, including his $77 million mansion in New York City and his Palm Beach home.
