The compound in New Mexico where five adults were arrested for the abuse of eleven children has been all over the news for the last couple of weeks. There have been many inexplicable twists and turns in the whole sordid affair. The remains of a three-year-old child were found on the property.
More outrageous developments included the partial bulldozing of the site by authorities and the judge overseeing the case granting the adults low bail and practically no oversight if they paid bail & were freed – just ankle bracelets for some of them.
Then three of the five extremist Muslims had all charges dropped by another judge because of a legal screw-up. Americans cried out in frustration and outrage. This group was allegedly training children to shoot up schools and possibly a hospital.
At the time that three of the adults were let off on a technicality, I speculated that the feds could still nail them on terrorism charges. I was close. They just got really bad news.
After a prosecutor’s error forced New Mexico Judge Emilio Chavez to dismiss charges against three of the five suspects earlier this week, FBI officials on Friday confirmed that all five have been re-arrested on a whole set of new charges. All five have been charged with violating federal firearms and conspiracy laws.
“The defendants, Jany Leveille, 35, a Haitian national illegally present in the United States, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, 40, Hujrah Wahhaj, 37, Subhanah Wahhaj, 35, and Lucas Morton, 40, are charged in a criminal complaint that was filed earlier today in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico,” said the FBI in a statement.
On Wednesday, three of the five adults in question: Lucas Morton, Subhannah Wahhaj, and Hujrah Wahhaj were released after Judge Chavez dismissed child abuse charges based on prosecutors’ violation of the “10-day-rule,” a timeframe during which an evidentiary hearing to establish probable cause must be held. “For whatever reason, the state did not obtain a preliminary hearing date within 10 days,” Morton public defender Aleksandar Kostich said, according to the Washington Post. “It’s absolutely bizarre.” Perhaps there was a reason for that and we are seeing it now.
This announcement comes after local prosecutors dropped charges in the death of the three-year-old boy at the compound site.
Taos County District Attorney Donald Gallegos said Friday his office would now seek grand jury indictments involving the death. Gallegos said seeking indictments would allow more time to gather evidence. I’m relieved to hear that but a good portion of the evidence was destroyed by authorities and I hope they find out why.
“The defendants, Jany Leveille, 35, a Haitian national illegally present in the United States, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, 40, Hujrah Wahhaj, 37, Subhanah Wahhaj, 35, and Lucas Morton, 40, are charged in a criminal complaint that was filed earlier today in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico,” the bureau said in a statement.
A criminal complaint says FBI agents seized at least 11 firearms: pistols, revolvers, a shotgun, and rifles, as well as a large quantity of ammunition at the compound in Amalia. The document alleges the firearms were transported to New Mexico from another state in Leveille’s vehicle.
The FBI stated that they arrested all five suspects without incident on Friday afternoon in Taos. Leveille faces a statutory maximum penalty of 10 years of imprisonment and deportation upon completion of her sentence if convicted, according to the FBI. If convicted of aiding and abetting Leveille, her co-defendants could each face a statutory maximum penalty of 10 years of imprisonment.
If convicted on the conspiracy charge, meanwhile, the five could each face a statutory penalty of five years’ imprisonment. Frankly, they should all go away permanently in my book. They look like a national security threat to me… they were flat out planning terrorism in my opinion. All five defendants are scheduled to appear in federal court in Albuquerque on Sept. 4.
The Department of Justice did the right thing here and I contend they were just waiting to spring this on these radicals. The de facto leader Siraj Ibn Wahhaj is allegedly the son of one of the unindicted co-conspirators of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He was also being held on a warrant from Georgia.
He allegedly kidnapped his son from the state, whose investigation led police to the compound. Siraj’s is reportedly the dead child found on the grounds.
Earlier this month, Thomas Clark, who is one of the five’s attorneys, argued that the defendants were being singled out because they were black Muslims.
“If these were white people of a Christian faith who owned guns, that’s not a big deal because there’s a Second Amendment right to own firearms in this country,” he said at a hearing on August 13. That is absolutely ludicrous considering what was going on at that camp. But it was enough for a liberal judge to let them initially walk.
The FBI has now righted that wrong.