Mexican police have raided Thomas Markle’s abandoned storage unit, allegedly seizing a trove of pornography material that was stashed inside.
Guardia Nacional officers, identified as state sex crime investigators, swooped in on the Baja Storage unit just after midnight local time on Saturday.
The team, comprised of forensic computing experts, a crime scene investigator and officials from the Baja California state attorney general’s office, could be seen rummaging through overfull boxes by torch light.
According to the Daily Mail, one officer recoiled while viewing some of the material, exclaiming “ay cabron”, which is a Spanish phrase translating to “oh, damn”.
A copy of the search warrant obtained by the Daily Mail reveals investigators were authorised by a judge to look for “evidence consisting of child sexual abuse material” and “the alleged commission of the crime of human trafficking in its aggravated form”.
Police itemised and seized material including a computer, thumb drives, VHS tapes and a stack of magazines before closing up and sealing the unit with an official seizure notice.
In addition to innocent family mementos, letters and photos kept by the Duchess of Sussex’s estranged father, other seized items included black-and-white prints of naked Asian females, including some who appear to be very young, as well as books and magazines sexualizing children as Lolitas.
There were also strips of 35mm negatives depicting voyeuristic images of children on a beach and dusty VHS tapes with titles including “Boys - Brother and Sister - Russian XX” and “Manila Nites”.
The shed also contained old computers, hard drives and a paper plate with the words “DARK WEB” scribbled in red ink alongside various URLs.
The unit, which has not been paid for in years, is now locked and plastered with posters from Mexican Guardia Nacional saying the items within have been seized.
Baja Storage’s owner and staff said they had no idea about the vault of alleged illicit material, and are disgusted by the discovery.
Markle first rented the unit in 2017 while living in the gated expat community of San Antonio del Mar before falling behind with payments and moving to the Philippines in 2025 without emptying it.
Hours before the raid, the Daily Mail photographed 85-year-old Markle being pushed between care homes in a wheelchair in Lakeland, Florida, where he currently resides.
The outlet claims they reached out to Markle on Saturday and he told them he “had no storage units in Rosarito”.
The recent investigations into Markle’s alleged sex offences come after his son, 60-year-old Thomas Markle Jr, reported him to the police after allegedly finding “hundreds, if not thousands of child sex images in boxes” that his father had shipped to the Philippines in his recent move, according to The Sun.
Wheelchair-bound Markle admits to paying for sex in the Philippines but denies any wrongdoing, describing the allegations as “sick lies”.
“I never had sex with anyone under the age of 18,” he told the Daily Mail.
“I like Asian women but that is not a crime.”
The Duchess of Sussex released a public statement last week, saying she was “deeply distressed” by the allegations against her father.
She has not commented on the developments in Mexico.
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