Aug 29, 2006 2:17 pm US/Central
FBI Captures Polygamist Warren Jeffs In Las Vegas
LAS VEGAS (CBS News) ―
The leader of a polygamist sect who was on the FBI's Most Wanted List was found with cell phones, laptop computers, wigs and more than $50,000 in cash when he was arrested, authorities said Tuesday.
Warren Steed Jeffs, 50, was taken into custody after he and two other people were pulled over late Monday by a Nevada Highway Patrol trooper on Interstate 15 just north of Las Vegas, FBI spokesman David Staretz said.
Jeffs didn't have any identification during a routine traffic stop, and was taken to the a local detention center where his identity was confirmed, CBS News Los Vegas affiliate KLAS-TV reports.
The leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was wanted in Utah and Arizona on suspicion of sexual misconduct for allegedly arranging marriages between underage girls and older men.
In May of this year, the FBI placed the fugitive leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list with a $100,000 reward.
Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said that his office is also looking at Jeffs and his church for "double books, cooking books, offshore accounts and fraud."
"I believe Warren Jeffs ran the FLDS church and the UEP as an organized crime-type setup," Shurtleff said. "We just have to get the evidence to prove it."
The other two people in the vehicle were identified as one of Warren Jeffs' wives, Naomi Jeffs, and a brother, Isaac Steve Jeffs, both 32, Staretz said.
They were being interviewed by the FBI in Las Vegas but were not arrested.
Jeffs was in federal custody in Las Vegas pending a court hearing on a federal charge of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, Staretz said. It was not immediately clear if Jeffs would face extradition to Arizona or Utah.
Jeffs was indicted in June on an Arizona charge of arranging a marriage between a 16-year-old girl and a married man, and unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. He is charged in Utah with two felony counts of rape as an accomplice, for allegedly arranging the marriage of a teenage girl to an older man in Nevada.
The FLDS Church split from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when the mainstream Mormon Church disavowed plural marriage more than 100 years ago.
(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
