NEED TO KNOW
- Alabama authorities arrested multiple people while executing a search warrant at a campsite occupied by a religious group on Dec. 30
- The group’s leader, Lando, later claimed that the group planned to leave that day; he also claimed that authorities “snatched” a member’s hair while executing the warrant
- Authorities said a gun and narcotics were found at the site, while Lando claimed that marijuana was the drug actually recovered
Authorities made arrests at a rural Alabama campsite that was occupied for months by a religious group. The members reportedly consider their leader to be an incarnation of Jesus Christ.
The Walker County Sheriff’s Office announced that officials had executed a search warrant at the Empire, Ala., campground where the group had been living on Tuesday, Dec. 30, in a video shared on Facebook the same day. Arrests were made at the rural property, where authorities also recovered drugs and a gun, Walker County Sheriff Nick Smith said in the video.
The group is called “More Than the Prophet Ministries,” according to WBRC 6 News. Its leader Lando, whose followers call him Reverend Lamp, claimed to the outlet that for about a year, he paid monthly rent for the rural campsite, where he invited individuals who needed to “get yourself together,” including treatment for drug and alcohol use.
Lando said the property owner, who lives in Arkansas, told the group to leave in November, and several individuals had already left by the time the warrant was executed, per WBRC 6. The rest were packing up and planned to leave by the end of December, for which Lando claimed he had already paid rent.
Several members of the group of around 15 — who hailed from various U.S. states, including California, New York, Georgia and Florida — were arrested and “illegal narcotics” were recovered, along with a handgun, at the rural property, according to Smith. The sheriff also warned that any members will be arrested for trespassing, should they return.
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“We have arrested some of the individuals connected to this campsite. We have released the others,” Smith said in the Dec. 30 video. “They are getting their belongings and they are leaving the property. They have been advised that they are no longer the property owners of this property.”
The Walker County Sheriff’s Office could not be reached for comment.
Lando claimed to WBRC 6 that three of the members were arrested for refusing to give their names to authorities, and that authorities found marijuana, not narcotics, at the site. He also told the outlet that the handgun was registered to someone who no longer lived at the campsite.
The religious group leader, who described himself to WBRC 6 as “the only begotten son of the living God,” recalled waking up to the warrant being executed after hearing a noise.
Walker County Sheriff’s Office/Facebook
Lando claimed one member’s hair was “snatched” in the process, with the same member showing a piece of his hair to WBRC 6 as evidence. Lando and other members also told the outlet that they were being handcuffed and laid face down on the road.
The leader also told the outlet that he felt that the authorities’ approach was heavy-handed.
If law enforcement had just “woke me up” and instructed them to leave, Lando told WBRC 6, he could have just told them that the group planned to depart that same day.
According to Smith, the Walker County Sheriff’s Office received support in the investigation into the group from the Blount County Sheriff’s Office, as well as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). (It is not immediately clear what role DHS played in the case.)
