Five adults arrested last month at a Taos County compound will be arraigned Wednesday (Sept. 12) for a second time in Albuquerque federal court. Hearings on whether they should remain behind bars also will take place, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The office announced that all five were indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury for the same counts they were charged with when the FBI arrested them on Aug. 31, after legal problems developed with prosecuting the compound residents on state charges in Taos.
Jnay Leveille, 35, a Haitian national, is charged with unlawfully possessing firearms and ammunition as an alien living illegally in the U.S. The other four — Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, 40, Hujrah Wahhaj, 37, Subhanah Wahhaj, 35, and Lucas Morton, 40 — are charged with conspiring to provide her with the weaponry.
The indictment alleges that the defendants established a training camp and firing range to prepare for violent attacks on government, military, educational, and financial institutions. Authorities say that some of 11 children taken into custody at the compound told officers they were being trained to attack targets which would be identified by a dead boy whose body was found at the compound. Leveille told the group that the boy — the son of Siraj Ibn Wahhaj — would be resurrected as Jesus, the children said.
Leveille and Siraj Ibn Wahhaj faced state charges of child abuse resulting in death for allegedly withhold medication from the boy, who suffered seizures before his death months before the compound was raided Aug. 3.
