Phoenix, USA - Polygamist sect leader Warren Steed Jeffs will face charges in Utah first, and then in Arizona, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
Jeffs, one of the FBI's 10 most wanted men, was arrested by police late on Monday in a routine traffic stop outside Las Vegas, Nevada.
The Arizona Attorney General's Office said Jeffs, 50, would face charges as an accomplice to rape in Utah, before being brought to Arizona on counts of sexual assault and other misconduct with minors.
"It was a collective decision between prosecutors," press secretary Andrea Esquer told Reuters.
"Factors included the ability to keep him in custody and the strength of the cases in each state," she added.
Jeffs is currently being held in jail in Nevada. It was not immediately clear when he would be transferred to Utah.
Considered a prophet by his estimated 10,000 followers, he is accused of arranging marriages between older men and underage girls in a community that is closed to outsiders.