FOUKE, Ark. (AP)
-- Federal authorities conducting a child-porn investigation raided the
headquarters Saturday of a ministry run by a convicted tax evader once labeled
by prosecutors as a polygamist
who preys on girls and women.
Social workers
interviewed children who live at the Tony
Alamo Christian
Ministries complex, which
critics call a cult, to find out whether they were abused. The two-year
investigation involves a law that prohibits the transportation of children
across state lines for criminal activity, said Tom Browne, who runs the FBI
office in Little Rock.
''Children living at the
facility may have been sexually and physically abused,'' Browne said.
The raid,
conducted by state and federal authorities, started an hour before sunset at
the complex in tiny Fouke, in southwestern Arkansas. Armed guards regularly patrol the headquarters, but there was no resistance as agents moved
in, state police said.
No one was
arrested, but U.S. Attorney Bob Balfe said before the raid that he expected an
arrest warrant for Alamo to be issued later.
The federal investigation centered on the production of child
pornography, while state police were looking into allegations of
other child abuse, he said.
In a phone call
to The Associated Press from a friend's
house in the Los Angeles
area, Tony Alamo -- who was also once accused of child abuse -- denied
involvement in pornography.
''We don't go into pornography; nobody in the church is into
that,''
Alamo said. ''Where do these allegations stem from? The anti-Christ government. The Catholics don't like me because I have cut their congregation in
half. They hate true Christianity.''
About 100 state
and federal law officers raided the 15-acre compound housing the ministry,
which the Southern Poverty Law Center describes as a cult that opposes
homosexuality, Catholicism and the government. The law center monitors the
activities of extremist groups in the U.S.
The ministry's Web site says it is ''dedicated to spreading the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ and the winning of souls worldwide.''
John Selig, head
of the Arkansas Department of Human Services, said state workers were talking
to children.
A passenger van
with about 12 people inside left the compound heading for Texarkana with a police escort shortly after
8 p.m. It appeared some of those inside were children, but Selig said he didn't know whether any children would be taken into
state custody.
Police said the Alamo church complex would be allowed to open for Sunday
services, although officers did not indicate when the search would end.
Alamo's church is in a
single-story building that used to be a convenience store. A white cross stands
atop the structure, with a small steeple to the right side.
Alamo and his
wife Susan were street preachers along Hollywood's Sunset Strip in 1966 before forming a commune
near Saugus, Calif.
Susan Alamo died of cancer in 1982 and Alamo
claimed she would be resurrected and kept her body on display for six months
while their followers prayed.
In 1988,
following a raid near Santa Ana, Calif., three boys whose mothers were Alamo
followers were placed in the custody of their fathers. Justin Miller, then 11,
told police that Alamo directed four men to
strike him 140 times with a wooden paddle as punishment for minor offenses. Alamo was charged with child abuse.
The California
Attorney General's office eventually
cleared Alamo and his followers of the
accusations.
In 1991, federal
agents raided Alamo's complex near Alma and seized designer jackets the ministry sold to
raise money; former Alamo followers had won a
$1.8 million judgment against him. At the same time, the IRS said Alamo owed the government $7.9 million and later won the
evangelist's conviction in federal
court.
The judge in the
tax case ordered him held pending sentencing after prosecutors argued that the
evangelist was a flight risk and a polygamist who preyed on married women and
girls in his congregation. U.S. District Judge Jon McCalla
said he was concerned over ''the very great control Mr. Alamo has over a number
of people.''
Alamo told the AP on Saturday
that he believed the raid was part of a push by the federal government to make same-sex marriage legal while outlawing
polygamy.
Alamo said he thought polygamy
was allowed in the Bible but said he did not practice it himself. He also said
that ''consent
is puberty''
when it comes to sex.
There had been
complaints about the ministry since Alamo
arrived in Fouke in the late 1990s, said Terry Purvis, mayor of the town of
about 850 residents. He has gotten calls from former ministry members with
allegations of child abuse, polygamy and underage marriage, he said.
Purvis said he
turned over all the complaints to the FBI.