SB 405
08-29-2006, 01:55 PM
A routine stop nabbed one of the FBI's ten most wanted. Guess every once in a while the bad guys just fall into your lap....
LAS VEGAS, Nevada (CNN) -- Nevada state troopers found one of the FBI's most wanted fugitives, along with wigs, cell phones, laptop computers and about $50,000 in cash, on a highway north of Las Vegas, authorities said Monday.
Polygamist sect leader Warren Steed Jeffs, 50, was a passenger in a red 2007 Cadillac Escalade that was pulled over along Interstate 15 shortly after 9 p.m. (7 p.m. ET) Monday.
Jeffs initially gave the troopers an alias before acknowledging who he was, said Steven M. Martinez, FBI Special Agent in Charge of the agency's Las Vegas office.
Jeffs faces charges of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution in Utah and Arizona, sexual conduct with a minor, conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor and rape as an accomplice, according to the FBI Web site.
He has been called a religious zealot and dangerous extremist by critics and former members of his church.
Authorities would not reveal the alias Jeffs used or identify the trooper who pulled over the Cadillac SUV. The trooper was a member of a team trained by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to spot suspicious vehicles, authorities said.
The Escalade was stopped because its temporary tag, issued in Colorado, was not clearly visible, said George Togliatti, Nevada's director of public safety. "These troopers are really highly trained," Togliatti said. "When you get a situation like this, you just bubble inside."
The trooper noted a passenger's resemblance to Jeffs, but a positive identification could not be immediately made because the state's computers were down, Togliatti said. When asked for identification, Jeffs offered only a contact lens receipt from another state that identified him as someone else, said John Lewis, FBI special agent-in-charge in Phoenix.
Two other occupants, later identified as one of Jeffs' wives, Naomi Jeffs, and a brother, Isaac Steed Jeffs, were questioned and released Tuesday morning.
LAS VEGAS, Nevada (CNN) -- Nevada state troopers found one of the FBI's most wanted fugitives, along with wigs, cell phones, laptop computers and about $50,000 in cash, on a highway north of Las Vegas, authorities said Monday.
Polygamist sect leader Warren Steed Jeffs, 50, was a passenger in a red 2007 Cadillac Escalade that was pulled over along Interstate 15 shortly after 9 p.m. (7 p.m. ET) Monday.
Jeffs initially gave the troopers an alias before acknowledging who he was, said Steven M. Martinez, FBI Special Agent in Charge of the agency's Las Vegas office.
Jeffs faces charges of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution in Utah and Arizona, sexual conduct with a minor, conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor and rape as an accomplice, according to the FBI Web site.
He has been called a religious zealot and dangerous extremist by critics and former members of his church.
Authorities would not reveal the alias Jeffs used or identify the trooper who pulled over the Cadillac SUV. The trooper was a member of a team trained by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to spot suspicious vehicles, authorities said.
The Escalade was stopped because its temporary tag, issued in Colorado, was not clearly visible, said George Togliatti, Nevada's director of public safety. "These troopers are really highly trained," Togliatti said. "When you get a situation like this, you just bubble inside."
The trooper noted a passenger's resemblance to Jeffs, but a positive identification could not be immediately made because the state's computers were down, Togliatti said. When asked for identification, Jeffs offered only a contact lens receipt from another state that identified him as someone else, said John Lewis, FBI special agent-in-charge in Phoenix.
Two other occupants, later identified as one of Jeffs' wives, Naomi Jeffs, and a brother, Isaac Steed Jeffs, were questioned and released Tuesday morning.