Police swarmed over pop superstar Michael Jackson’s opulent Neverland Ranch, near Santa Barbara in central California, on Tuesday as part of an unspecified criminal investigation, police said.

A Santa Barbara Sheriff’s spokesman said sheriff’s deputies and officials from the District Attorney’s office went to the sprawling ranch at 8.30 a.m. PST to “serve a search warrant as part of an ongoing criminal investigation.”

The search was still going on two hours later.

Police did not specify the nature of the investigation, but cable channel Court TV said it stemmed from allegations of sexual abuse brought by a 12-year-old boy against the self-styled King of Pop.

A spokesman for Jackson was not immediately available for comment and Jackson’s whereabouts were not immediately clear.

The allegations come nine years after a 14-year-old reached an out-of-court agreement to settle a lawsuit accusing the singer of molesting him in 1992. No criminal charges were ever brought in that case.

Tuesday’s search warrant follows a tumultuous year for Jackson, whose talents as an entertainer have been eclipsed by his often bizarre behavior both before the cameras and away from them.

In November last year, the former child-star stunned fans in Berlin by dangling his barefoot baby from a hotel window.

Then in February, he revealed in a British television documentary that he shared his Neverland bedroom with young boys and made his children wear masks in public.

The frank revelations sparked calls for an investigation by California child welfare authorities at the Neverland ranch, where Jackson has built theme-park style rides, a zoo and a mini railroad track which he throws open to local children.

In June, Jackson settled a $12 million breach of contract lawsuit by his former top adviser, avoiding a trial that threatened to spill details of his financial empire and personal life into open court.

Credit: Reuters