Texas property owned by polygamist group FLDS seized by state

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last updated 8 January 2015

Almost six years after FBI agents stormed the Yearning for Zion Ranch near Eldorado, Texas, the Texas Department of Public Safety said its agents took possession of the compound on Thursday.

The ranch was once home to Warren Jeffs and his followers in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, but when authorities arrived at the secluded property, they discovered just eight adults living there. All agreed to leave.

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Earlier this year, the state alleged that FLDS leaders financed the $1.1 million purchase of the land in 2003 through money laundering. The AP reports that because there were also sexual assaults committed on the property, under Texas law authorities can confiscate property used to perpetrate or facilitate certain criminal conduct. A judge agreed, and ordered the forfeiture of the property, seen below, in January. --Catherine Garcia

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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