Polygamous sect leader Lyle Jeffs captured after 1 year

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Polygamous sect leader Lyle Jeffs was captured Wednesday night in South Dakota after being on the run for nearly a year after escaping from home confinement in Utah pending trial on food stamp fraud charges.

The FBI announced the capture this morning with a Tweet: "#ARRESTED: FLDS leader Lyle Jeffs in custody after nearly a year on the lam."

FBI spokeswoman Sandra Barker confirmed the arrest and said more details would be provided later in the day.

The group, known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is based in a small community on the Utah-Arizona border, but it also has a small compound in far west South Dakota.

Jeffs is jailed in Sioux Falls, S.D., said Minehaha County Jail Warden Jeff Gromer. He said Jeffs is being held for the U.S. Marshal Service.

South Dakota Department of Public Safety spokesman Tony Mangan said that the state Highway Patrol was asked to respond Wednesday to an undisclosed scene and transported Jeffs to Sioux Falls at the request of the FBI.