SALT LAKE CITY - Polygamous sect leader Lyle Jeffs has been captured in South Dakota while apparently living out of his pickup truck after almost a year on the run, authorities said Thursday.
Jeffs's brother, Warren Jeffs, is now in prison, though is believed to still be leading his sect, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
As The Washington Post reported past year, Lyle Jeffs and other church leaders were indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit supplemental nutrition assistance program benefits fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Salt Lake City FBI Special Agent in Charge Eric Barnhart says public information led to the arrest.... He slipped out of an ankle monitor and has been on the run ever since.
The FBI said Jeffs was taken into custody about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday in southeastern South Dakota, where he is still being held.
Lyle Jeffs' brother, FLDS President Warren Jeffs, is serving life in prison for sexually assaulting two girls aged 12 and 15. The FBI is expected to hold a news conference in Salt Lake City on Jeffs' arrest Thursday afternoon.
"Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Labor ordered Lyle, some FLDS businessmen and the church itself to pay fines totaling nearly $2 million for using children and unpaid labor during a 2012 pecan harvest". He was on the FBI's Most Wanted List for SNAP benefits fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
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The FBI issued a warrant for his arrest shortly after he disappeared and issued a $50,000 reward and "wanted" poster.
The suspicious pawn shop employee notified the owner that Jeffs was wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who learned more about him online and alerted authorities.
Yankton is roughly 400 miles east of Pringle, South Dakota, where the FLDS owns a compound, Barnhart said.
Apart from evading police, he's accused of involvement in a scheme to convert food stamps into cash for the church. They expect him back in Utah in the next several days. They provided authorities with store video of Jeffs, pawn paperwork and the vehicle Jeffs was driving: A silver pickup truck. Jeffs, the leader of Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, will likely face another felony charge over his conduct the past year, according to the government.
"When you flee a federal indictment, the long arm of the law will eventually catch up to you and bring you back to justice", Huber said. The money was then diverted to front companies and used to pay thousands for a tractor, truck and other items, prosecutors say.
While he was a fugitive, nine of the 10 other people charged in the high-profile bust in February 2016 took plea deals while one person had his charges dismissed.
Jeffs and the other defendants claimed that they were sharing food and that it was a facet of their communal living.
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