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Polygamous Sect Leader Lyle Jeffs Captured After 1 Year

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Polygamous sect leader Lyle Jeffs has been captured after being on the run for nearly a year.

FBI spokeswoman Sandra Barker said Thursday morning that Jeffs was arrested in South Dakota at about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday. No other details were provided.

Authorities had been looking for Jeffs since June 18, 2016, when he escaped from home confinement in Salt Lake City pending trial on charges in an alleged multimillion-dollar food stamp fraud scheme.

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Jeffs is the brother of the sect's highest leader, the imprisoned Warren Jeffs.

Prosecutors said Lyle Jeffs was a flight risk, but U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart let him out in early June 2016, citing the fact that 10 other defendants in the food stamp fraud case already out had complied with the court's conditions.