RIO DE JANEIRO -- Brazilian authorities said Saturday they arrested a self-professed minister put on a U.S. most-wanted list over accusations he molested two girls in a "Maidens Group" at his religious fellowship in rural Minnesota.
A statement posted on the website of the Public Security Secretariat for the Rio Grande do Norte state government reported the arrest of Victor Arden Barnard, 53. The U.S. Marshals Service also confirmed the arrest in a statement.
The Brazilian statement said police captured Barnard late Friday in an apartment near a white-sand beach in northeastern Brazil. He was being held in the city of Natal to await extradition to face charges in the U.S.
Barnard, who faces 59 counts of criminal sexual conduct, was on the most-wanted list of the U.S. Marshals Service.
According to a criminal complaint in the U.S., two women said they were among about 10 girls and young women who were chosen to live apart from their families in a camp that Barnard set up near Finlayson, Minn., about 90 miles north of Minneapolis.
One woman alleged Barnard sexually abused her beginning at age 13 and continuing until she was 22. The other said her abuse occurred between ages 12 and 20.
Barnard is accused of keeping the girls isolated, and U.S. authorities have said he used religious coercion and intimidation to maintain his control over them, calling it cultlike behavior.
The U.S. Marshals Service said Barnard initially left Minnesota in 2010, before the women came forward, and his location was unknown for some time. It was believed he and his followers had moved to Washington state.
Brazilian police inspector Paulo Henrique Oliveira told the news portal G1, the website of Brazil's biggest TV network, that Barnard entered the South American country legally in 2012.
Authorities said Barnard had been living for at least six months at the apartment where he was arrested near Praia da Pipa beach, about 1,300 miles from Rio de Janeiro.
A Section on 03/01/2015