MOST WANTED CAPTURE
Fugitive Jeffs Arrested in Las Vegas
08/29/06
Warren
Steed Jeffs, leader of a polygamous sect and one of the FBI’s Ten Most
Wanted Fugitives since May, was arrested Monday during a routine
traffic stop in Las Vegas.
The 50-year-old fugitive, wanted
for alleged sex assaults in 2002, was a passenger in a late-model SUV
that was stopped by a Nevada Department of Public Safety trooper for
not displaying valid license plates. The trooper, who was specially
trained to spot suspicious vehicles and in other homeland security
procedures, recognized Jeffs from wanted posters. He was arrested
without incident.
The capture is the 453 rd arrest of an FBI Most Wanted figure since the program to catch fugitives was established in 1950.
Steve Martinez, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Las Vegas field office, praised the work of the Nevada troopers.
“This
is indicative of when agencies get together and pool resources,”
Martinez said during an August 29 press conference in Las Vegas.
Jeffs,
a former private schoolteacher and accountant, is the leader of a
polygamous sect known as the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (FLDS)
that separated itself from mainstream Mormonism in 1890 after polygamy
was banned. FLDS, which has an estimated 10,000 followers, has
communities in Hilldale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona. Jeffs was
wanted for the alleged sexual assault of a minor in 2002 and for one
count of conspiracy to commit sexual assault with a minor that same
year. The alleged offenses took place in the vicinity of Colorado City.
Additionally, Jeffs is wanted In Utah as an accomplice to rape.
Resources:
Warren Jeffs Wanted Poster
FBI Ten Most Wanted
