Police arrest 21 alleged cult members for flouting Hawaii quarantine

HONOLULU (AP) — Twenty-one people who recently arrived in Hawaii, describing themselves as a family with a leader, were arrested and charged with violating the state's mandatory 14-day quarantine put in place in an attempt to protect the islands from the spread of the coronavirus, police said.

They all arrived over two days earlier this month from Los Angeles, Hawaii County police Lt. Rio Amon-Wilkins said Friday. Some of them indicated on quarantine forms and travel declarations that they would be vacationing, while most of them reported that they intended to move to Hawaii, he said.

“They describe themselves kind of as a family,” he said. “They indicated they wanted to get away from mainstream society and live off the land."

Their self-described leader, Eligio Lee Bishop, was arrested Thursday with six other men and six women at a home booked via Airbnb in a rural and remote district of the Big Island, Amon-Wilkins said.

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