Two men have been arrested on Oprah Winfrey’s $5.3million Hawaiian ranch suspected of illegal hunting.
Luke Allen and Ty Munoz, both 19 and from Maui, were arrested just before midnight on June 21 after officers found them using a hunting spotlight on a public road that runs through Winfrey’s ranch and land in Kula, state officials said.
While they were not caught actively hunting, officers found a loaded shotgun and a loaded rifle in the pair’s truck, and Winfrey’s ranch surrounds the road where they were stopped, the state said.
The men were arrested on suspicion of hunting on private lands without permission, not having a hunting license and other violations. One of them was also arrested for an unregistered semi-automatic rifle.
Winfrey snapped up the 870 acres of picturesque land in the Kula region of the Hawaiian island of Maui for $6.6million in March 2023, close to a ranch she bought for $5.3million in 2003.
Last year’s purchase, revealed in sales deeds, means Winfrey now owns around 1,000 acres of land on Maui.
She reportedly snapped up the new plots in several purchases: a 520 acre parcel for $3.89 million, a 330 acre parcel for $2.47 million, and two 10 acre parcels for $100,000 each.
Oprah, whose net worth is estimated at between $2.5 billion and $3 billion, bought her latest plots of land from Ulupalakua Ranch, which is owned by the prominent Erdman family. The land is agriculturally-zoned.
Oprah’s intentions for the plot aren’t clear but she’s previously purchased land to protect it from development, according to her website.
About 11,000 acres of Ulupalakua land is protected for conservation – and cannot be developed – but the chunks bought by Oprah aren’t included within that, according to SFGate.
Invasive axis deer run rampant on Maui and other islands of Hawaii and could have been a potential target of the alleged hunters arrested on Winfrey’s ranch.
Maui County prosecutors will review the case and determine if there will be charges. Records show the men were released pending investigation, county officials said.
‘Last month, DLNR reached out to Upcountry ranchers regarding their efforts to prevent illegal poaching throughout the area and we agreed to cooperate. The arrests did not happen on the property,’ Winfrey’s production company, Harpo, said in a statement.
