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ST. GEORGE — The FBI has conducted several raids in Colorado City, Arizona, involving a sect of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
The FBI's office out of Phoenix confirmed that they were in Colorado City Tuesday "conducting court-authorized law enforcement activity."
St. George News has learned at approximately 10:45 a.m., the FBI performed a raid on the home of known local FLDS leader Samuel Bateman. Bateman leads a break-off sect of the FLDS religion in Colorado City.
The raid comes nearly 15 years to the day, on Sept. 25, 2007, that FLDS leader Warren Jeffs was convicted in a St. George court of being an accomplice to rape. That conviction was later overturned, and Jeffs was subsequently convicted of aggravated sexual assault on a minor in Texas, where he remains in prison. Jeffs has continued to lead the FLDS from prison.
