New Mexico family saw dead boy as guide for future attacks -prosecutors

TAOS, N.M., (Reuters) - A 3-yearold boy found buried at a New Mexico desert compound died in a ritual to “cast out demonic spirits,” but his extended family believed he would “return as Jesus” to identify “corrupt” targets for them to attack, prosecutors said yesterday.

Authorities unearthed the boy’s remains at a ramshackle compound north of Taos, three days after an Aug. 3 raid in which investigators found 11 other children alive but malnourished and arrested five adults on charges of abusing them.

At least some of the children, ranging from 1 to 15 years of age, were given weapons training to defend the compound against a possible FBI raid, the court was told.

FBI Special Agent Travis Taylor said that a 15-year-old related to investigators that one of the suspects told him the dead 3-year-old, identified as Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj, would return and designate institutions, such as the financial system and law enforcement, for attack.

“They were awaiting for AbdulGhani to be resurrected to let them know which government institutions to get rid of,” Taos County Prosecutor John Lovelace said in arguing that bail should be denied for all five defendants.

But state District Judge Sarah Backus rejected prosecutors’ request and set bond at $20,000 for each of the suspects.

The adults, including three women who police said were the mothers of the 11 children, were each charged with 11 counts of felony child abuse.

Prosecutors said in court documents filed last week that Lucas Morton and his wife, Subhannah Wahhaj, along with her brother, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj and his spouse, Jany Leveille, and another sister, Hujrah Wahhaj, were training the children to use firearms “in furtherance of a conspiracy to commit school shootings.”

Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, 39, the son a prominent New York-based Muslim cleric, also was charged in the alleged abduction of his son AbdulGhani from his mother’s Atlanta home last December.

A cross-country search for the missing boy and his father led investigators to the 10-acre compound on the outskirts of the community of Amalia near the Colorado border.

The children were clothed in rags and starving when they were found, authorities said. The remains of a young boy, believed to be AbdulGhani, were found buried at the site three days later.