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(KSL News) Polygamist leader Warren Jeffs is in the Clark County jail in Las Vegas this morning after a routine traffic stop led to his arrest.
Jeffs was found with numerous credit cards, laptops, cell phones, and disguises.
Jeffs is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday.
Officials in Utah and Arizona hope the arrest will help stop abuse in polygamous communities.
Mark Shurtleff, Utah Attorney General said, "I think that will do a lot to crack that mystique and actually, quite frankly the fear. I believe a lot of these people live in fear of him and what he might do to their families. He has been so prolific in tearing families apart, and now his ability to do that has been substantially altered."
Since Jeffs took over in the late '90s, the FLDS church has been wracked with conflict. Jeffs ousted many, tearing families apart, narrowing the group to the most faithful.
There's still no decision yet on whether Arizona or Utah will get the first crack at prosecuting Jeffs.
The fugitive polygamous leader is wanted in both states for allegedly arranging marriages between underage women and older men.
The first charges against Jeffs were filed in Arizona, but he faces more serious charges in Utah.
Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard says he'll probably talk today to his counterpart in Utah to try to figure things out, although he says he does not think it's important where Jeffs is prosecuted first.
Meanwhile, the attorney general acknowledges that it may be tough to get witnesses to testify against Jeffs, noting that the FLDS church has used intimation in the past to keep witnesses from testifying.
He says prosecutors are going to have to work very hard "to make sure that witnesses know that they're going to be safe."
(The Associated Press contributed to this report with information from: KPHO-TV, http://www.kpho.com)
