Cult Senior Members Convicted of Human Trafficking

A federal jury in Kansas convicted Kaaba Majeed, 50, Yunus Rassoul, 39, James Staton, 62, Randolph Rodney Hadley, 49, Daniel Aubrey Jenkins, 43, and Dana Peach, 60, of conspiracy to commit forced labor in late September.

Additionally, the jury convicted Kaaba Majeed of five counts of forced labor, while two other co-defendants, Etenia Kinard, 48, and Jacelyn Greenwell, 45, previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit forced labor.

During the 26-day trial, the defendants were all either high-ranking members of UNOI or former wives of the deceased founder of this movement, Royall Jenkins, who died in 2021 from COVID-19 complications, according to court documents.

The UNOI has also rebranded itself several times, including calling itself “Value Creators” and “Promise Keepers,” according to prosecutors.

‘United Nation of Islam’ But Really a Cult

Despite its name, the UNOI is not affiliated with any legitimate stream of Islam and is not affiliated with the better-known Nation of Islam. UNOI is a cult.

UNOI founder Royall Jenkins claimed he was “Allah”– the God who created the universe. He fed his followers the lie that he’d been kidnapped by aliens in the 1970s, and these aliens coached him on how to properly rule Earth, according to the indictment in the case.

The UNOI’s public website, thevaluecreators.org, is not currently active, but the group’s YouTube channel is still up. Videos on the channel show Jenkins telling followers that he is God.

Human Trafficking Charges

The indictment in the case charged that Majeed, Rassoul, Staton, Hadley, Jenkins (Daniel Aubrey), and Peach conspired in a scheme that recruited young adults and children to work in factories and provide childcare and other personal services under the guise of receiving a valuable education.

They used UNOI as a way to get the parents to send their children to Kansas by making false promises that they would help their children get an education. After the children arrived, they started to control what victims viewed and read and how they dressed. They even forced victims to routinely undergo “colonics,” during which water was pumped into the lower intestines via the rectum. The physical and mental abuse amounted to torture, say prosecutors.

They also limited their victims’ communication and monitored their movements, even in the case of medical emergencies, which led to the death of 14-year-old Shaquanta Williams.
Williams suffered from cancer, but Jenkins refused to take her to the hospital, claiming that “her sickness was her own will,” according to the UNOI episode of A&E’s “Cults and Strange Beliefs.”

Elijah Muhammed, one of the UNOI survivors, shared details in his interview with A&E, who investigated this cult. “Shaquanta begged to go to the hospital, and they did not take her,” Muhammad said.

“The United Nation of Islam and these defendants held themselves out as a beacon of hope for the community, promising to educate and teach important life skills to members, particularly children. Instead, the defendants betrayed this trust, exploiting young children in the organization by callously compelling their labor,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

Special Agent in Charge Stephen Cyrus of the FBI Kansas City Field Office said that some of the victims were as young as eight years old. “Under the guise of false pretenses and coercion, these victims endured inhumane and abhorrent conditions,” Cyrus said.

Instead of receiving the promised educational opportunities, victims worked in UNOI-owned businesses, like restaurants, bakeries, laboratories, clothing, and sewing factories, sometimes up to 16 hours per day, without receiving compensation. UNOI members forced them to live in terrible conditions, in overcrowded facilities infected with mold and rodents, prosecutors argued in the indictment.

Sentencing hearings are scheduled for Feb. 18, 2025. Kaaba Majeed faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and mandatory restitution. The rest of the defendants each face a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

National Human Trafficking Hotline

Anyone who has information about human trafficking should report that information to the National Human Trafficking Hotline toll-free at 1-888-373-7888, which is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

For more information about human trafficking, please visit www.humantraffickinghotline.org.

Information on the Justice Department’s efforts to combat human trafficking can be found at www.justice.gov/humantrafficking.