Yesterday [Warren Steed Jeffs] was in federal custody in Las Vegas, facing multiple charges of sexual crimes against minors, an FBI spokeswoman said.

[...]

Jeffs is known as the Prophet to an estimated 10,000 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which he inherited from his father, Rulon Jeffs, in 1998.

Their sect broke away when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, better known as the Mormons, banned polygamy in 1890. Rulon Jeffs was excommunicated by the Mormon Church in 1941, and his son was never a member. Authorities say that both men routinely arranged marriages for underage girls with male followers.

The fundamentalist sect is notoriously secretive, but details about Rulon and Warren Jeffs's lifestyle emerged in 1999, when they sold a seven-acre, $1.9 million walled compound in Sandy, Utah, where they had lived with their wives and children since the early 1980s.

Women's bedrooms in Rulon Jeffs's main house were decorated with wallpaper saying "Keep Sweet No Matter What." Their doors were marked with red, yellow or green tags, depending on whether they were ovulating. The house had an industrial-size laundry. And there were signs of other practices shocking to Mormons: Apparently, they drank coffee and berry wine.