Fugitive life of US polygamist leader ends in Las Vegas

After three months on the FBI’s Most Wanted List and two years on the run, the fugitive life of the US leader of a polygamist religious sect ended with a routine traffic stop.

Warren Steed Jeffs, 50, leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was wanted in Utah and Arizona on charges of arranging two marriages between underage girls and older men. He was in a Cadillac Escalade that was pulled over on Monday night by the Nevada Highway Patrol.

“Once the FBI got there … he gave his full name, Warren Jeffs, and kind of gave a sigh,” said Eddie Dutchover, the trooper who stopped the sport utility vehicle with Jeffs and two other people inside.

Jeffs is said to have at least 40 wives and nearly 60 children. Jeffs claimed to be invincible, protected by God from capture, with bodyguards who promised to fight to the death for him, authorities said.

Jeffs is said to have encouraged church members to wed young girls. Church dissidents say that underage marriages – some involving girls as young as 13 - escalated into the hundreds under his leadership, and that he broke apart families by casting out married men and reassigning their women and children to others.

The vehicle he was riding in was stopped on Interstate 15 for having a temporary Colorado licence tag that wasn’t easily readable, FBI and Nevada Highway Patrol officials said.

Dutchover said he felt something was amiss, because Jeffs said the group had stayed in Las Vegas for a night, but had too much luggage for that.

Authorities said they found three wigs, 15 cell phones, $54,000 (€42,098) in cash and $10,000 (€7,796) in gift cards in the vehicle.

Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard told KTAR-AM of Phoenix that Jeffs’ arrest marks “the beginning of the end of … the tyrannical rule of a small group of people over the practically 10,000 followers of the FLDS sect".

Naomi Jeffs, who was also travelling in the vehicle, and Isaac Jeffs were released and will not be charged, said FBI special agent in charge Steven Martinez in Las Vegas.

Federal and state law enforcement agencies will determine whether Jeffs, who was in custody at the Clark County jail, should be sent first to Utah or Arizona, said Steve Sorenson, a federal prosecutor in Salt Lake City. Utah’s charges are more serious.

The FLDS Church split from the mainstream Mormon Church when the Mormons disavowed polygamy more than 100 years ago. Warren Jeffs took over the renegade sect in 2002 after the death of his 98-year-old father, Rulon Jeffs, who was said to have had 65 children by several women. Warren Jeffs took nearly all his father’s widows as his own wives.

Most of the church’s members live in Hildale and adjoining Colorado City, Arizona, but authorities have said they believe Jeffs had “safe houses” in four other states – including Nevada – and Canada.