Cult leaders in Kansas are accused of forcing children to do unpaid work in rat-infested facilities, otherwise they face “eternal hellfire”

Six members of a Kansas cult have been convicted of placing children in overcrowded, rodent-infested facilities and forcing them to work up to 16 hours a day without pay while subjecting them to beatings and other abuse. The children, prosecutors said, were threatened that they would burn in “eternal hellfire” if they left the facilities.

The defendants are either high-ranking members of the former organization “United Nation of Islam and Value Creators” or the wives of the deceased founder Royall Jenkins, the US Department of Justice said when announcing the verdict on Monday.

After a 26-day trial, the jury convicted all six defendants of conspiracy to commit forced labor. One of the six, 50-year-old Kaaba Majeed, was also found guilty of five counts of forced labor.

“Under false pretenses and coercion, these victims, some as young as eight years old, were forced to endure inhumane and abhorrent conditions,” FBI Special Agent Stephen Cyrus said in a written statement.

Prosecutors said the group, which was designated a cult by a federal judge in 2018, beat children and imposed strict dietary restrictions on them. One of the victims was held upside down over train tracks because he wouldn't admit to stealing food when he was hungry, prosecutors said. Another victim drank water from the toilet because he was so thirsty.

Jenkins, who died in 2021, was a member of the Nation of Islam until 1978, when he formed the separate United Nation of Islam. He convinced his followers that he had been shown the proper way to rule Earth after being “guided across the galaxy in a spaceship by aliens,” according to the indictment. At one point, the group had hundreds of followers.

Prosecutors said that beginning in October 2000, the organization operated businesses such as gas stations, bakeries and restaurants in several states, using the unpaid labor of group members and their children.

Parents were advised to send their children to an unaccredited school in Kansas City, Kansas. It was called the University of Arts and Logistics of Civilization and did not provide adequate instruction in most subjects.

Instead, some of the child victims worked at companies in Kansas City, while others were trafficked to companies in other states, including New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Maryland, Georgia and North Carolina, the indictment says.

“All of the victims lived in deplorable conditions, in overcrowded facilities that were often infested with mold, mice and rats,” prosecutors said.

There were strict rules about what they could read, how they dressed and what they ate, prosecutors said. Some were forced to undergo colonic irrigations. Punishments included being locked in a dark, frightening basement, prosecutors said.

They were told that if they left, they would burn in “eternal hellfire.”

“In contrast, the defendants and their immediate family members led comfortable lives,” prosecutors said.

In May 2018, US judge Daniel Crabtree labeled the group a cult and ordered it to pay $8 million to a woman who said she had performed unpaid labor for ten years.

The verdict is scheduled for February. Child labor case. The convictions call for prison terms of up to 20 years for Majeed and up to five years for the other defendants: Yunus Rassoul, 39; James Staton, 62; Randolph Rodney Hadley, 49; Daniel Aubrey Jenkins, 43; and Dana Peach, 60.

On Tuesday, emails were sent to the lawyers of all six defendants asking for a statement.

Two other co-defendants had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit forced labor.

“The United Nations of Islam and these defendants portrayed themselves as a beacon of hope for the community, promising to teach and educate members, especially children, in important life skills,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. “Instead, the defendants betrayed that trust by exploiting young children in the organization by ruthlessly forcing them to work.”