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Updated Sept. 5, 2006, 5:33 p.m. ET
Polygamist leader Warren Jeffs extradited to Utah


Warren Jeffs
Polygamist leader Warren Jeffs was "cooperative and compliant" during a helicopter ride from Tuesday morning from Las Vegas to Utah's Purgatory Correctional Facility, authorities said.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs was flown back to Utah on Tuesday to face sex charges involving the arranged marriages of underage girls and older men, authorities said.

"He's gone as of this morning," Clark County Sheriff Bill Young said after Jeffs was picked up at the Clark County jail Tuesday by authorities from Utah.

Jeffs, 50, was to be held at the Purgatory Correctional Facility in Hurricane, Utah, pending a court appearance. He had been on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list until his arrest last month during a chance traffic stop near Las Vegas.

When the Nevada Highway Patrol pulled over the vehicle Jeffs was riding in, the officers found wigs, more than a dozen cell phones, several laptop computers and $54,000, police said.

Jeffs had been wanted for more than a year on charges that he arranged marriages between older men and underage girls, some just 13 years old. He had at least 40 wives, scores of children, thousands of followers and control over millions of dollars from a church trust.

His polygamist sect, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, broke away from the Mormon church more than a century ago and has been disavowed by the Mormons. Many of its followers live in the twin towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., where Jeffs took over leadership after his father's death in 2002.

Jeffs faces criminal charges in Arizona as well, but Utah will prosecute him first because it has a stronger case and its charges are more serious. He had waived extradition to Utah after his arrest.



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