The Nation - News from March 18, 1987

Authorities arrested nine top-ranking followers of political extremist Lyndon LaRouche in Leesburg, Va., Tuesday night on a New York state grand jury’s charges of conspiracy and fraud in connection with the group’s fund-raising activities. Six more LaRouche followers were being sought elsewhere. The treasurer of LaRouche’s 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns, Edward Spannaus, who already faces federal charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice, was taken into custody by Loudoun County Sheriff’s deputies on the New York charges. Sheriff’s spokesman Terry McCracken said Spannaus and his wife Nancy were among 15 LaRouche followers named in the New York indictments. Nine of those charged live around Leesburg, where LaRouche makes his headquarters, and the remainder were being sought in New York and elsewhere.