Five adults, two men and three women, were arrested on Friday at a desert compound near Amalia, New Mexico. Also at the compound were eleven children, one of whom had been trained in weaponry and tactics for school shootings.
The adults were Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, another man named Lucas Allen Morton, and three women. The women were Jany Leveille, Hujrah Wahhaj, and Subhannah Wahhaj.
Police had gone to the compound seeking one of the men, Wahhaj, on charges that he had abducted his three year old child from his mother’s home in Georgia. The child suffered seizures and a limp; Siraj had stated, prior to the abduction, that he needed to exorcise the child.
Remains of a toddler’s body were found at the location on Monday. An initial analysis has identified the body as that of the missing child, although final analysis has not yet been completed. (Taos News)
The property’s owner, Jason Badger, had an existing complaint and case filed against Morton for squatting.
The details of the arrests were made public during a hearing on child abuse charges on Wednesday.
The child abuse charges were brought after the police visited the compound and discovered that the children in it had no access to clean water, food or electricity and suffered from poor hygiene and malnutrition. Further charges are likely after the revelation that one of the children had received training from Siraj Ibn Wahhaj to carry out a school shooting.
Wahhaj’s father is a prominent Brooklyn Imam, and was the first Muslim cleric to deliver an opening prayer before the U.S. House of Representatives. (BBC)
