On Friday, the FBI announced that it had arrested all five “extremist Muslim” suspects involved in a New Mexico compound that was training 11 children to carry out school shootings.
The arrests come days after a judge dismissed child neglect charges against three of the five suspects.
The suspects were charged with violating federal firearms and conspiracy laws.
The FBI said in a statement, “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.”
Eleven children were found living in filth and the body of a 3-year-old boy was discovered during the raid.
The compound was linked to the “extremist Muslims,” where it was discovered one suspect was training the children, ages 1 to 15, to commit school shootings, according to court documents.
Prosecutors missed a 10-day deadline for a hearing to establish probable cause for the child neglect charges, Judge Emilio Chavez said, the Associated Press reported which led to the dismissal.
Lucas Morton, Subhannah Wahhaj and Hujrah Wahha can still be charged by prosecutors, but there was no indication as to how things would move forward, the Associated Press said.
Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, 39, and his partner, Jany Leveille, still face charges. It was Siraj Ibn Wahhaj’s 3-year-old son whose remains were discovered at the compound.
There were 11 children discovered at the compound, whom Taos County Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe described as looking like “third world country refugees not only with no food or fresh water, but with no shoes, personal hygiene and basically dirty rags for clothing,” Fox News had reported. The conditions were “the ugliest looking, filthiest” he had ever seen, the sheriff added.
Authorities described Wahhaj as “heavily armed with an AR15 rifle, five loaded 30 round magazines, and four loaded pistols, including one in his pocket when he was taken down” when the compound was raided, Hogrefe said, Fox reported.
Hogrefe has said that the adults at the compound were “considered extremist of the Muslim belief,” but he did not elaborate, CBS News had reported.
Prosecutors said that Wahhaj was using the guns to train the children “how to perform mass school shootings,” The Daily mail had reported.
The compound, located near the Colorado border, is linked to “extreme Muslims,” according to various reports, includingFox News.
The New York Post had revealed that Siraj Wahhaj is the son of a Brooklyn imam of the same name, who is 68 years old and leads the Masjid At-Taqwa in Bedford-Stuyvesant, according to several congregants.
“Prosecutors named the elder Siraj Wahhaj — born Jeffrey Kearse — as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He also was a character witness in the trial of convicted terror plotter Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman,” The Post reported.
The imam was at one point on a list of people who “may be alleged as co-conspirators” to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, court documents released by prosecutors Wednesday said, CBS had reported.
The elder Siraj Wahhaj testified as a character witness for the “blind sheikh” Omar Abdel Rahman, who was convicted in 1995 of plotting terror attacks in the United States, CBS said.
