DOJ Files Reveal Secret DEA Probe of Epstein’s Suspected Drug‑Linked Wire Transfers

A newly released 2015 DEA memo in the Justice Department’s Epstein files shows that Jeffrey Epstein was formally targeted in a five‑year‑plus Drug Enforcement Administration investigation into roughly $50 million in suspicious wire transfers potentially tied to illegal narcotics and prostitution activities in the U.S. Virgin Islands and New York. The 69‑page document, marked 'law enforcement sensitive' and heavily redacted, lists Epstein and 14 other individuals, carries a DEA case number opened in New York on Dec. 17, 2010, and describes the matter as 'judicial pending' as of 2015—an indication, former agents say, that warrants or other court actions were being sought or that arrests had occurred. The memo shows DEA sought help from the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces Fusion Center and catalogs Epstein‑linked accounts in Switzerland, France, the Cayman Islands and New York, plus a now‑exposed Polish fashion model named in connection with about $2 million in transfers. It also discloses a series of previously unknown ICE probes tied to Epstein in West Palm Beach, Las Vegas and Paris ('Operation Angel Watch'), as well as an FBI investigation opened in 2006 that was still active in 2015; notably, prosecutors who later brought Epstein’s 2019 sex‑trafficking case in Manhattan told CBS they had not been aware of the earlier DEA case. The revelations deepen questions about how many federal agencies had eyes on Epstein, what they learned from following his money, and why multiple investigations — including a narcotics‑linked probe — never produced public charges before his 2019 arrest and jailhouse death.