Leader of stinky cult who told followers not to wash deported back to US

US-born cult leader Eligio Lee Bishop has been kicked out of Panama after leading a sect that urged female followers not to wash and maintain a "strong body odour"

Daily Star, UK/December 6, 2019

By Anna Savva

A stinky cult leader who ordered his followers not to wash has been chucked out of Panama back to his home country of the US.

The 37-year-old American sect leader, who has a mansion in the Latin American country, has been deported back to the US by the Panama Migration Office after being branded a “threat to national security”.

According to the Panama Migration Office, Eligio Lee Bishop, 37, is a former barber, model, stripper and sex worker.

He did not allow some of his female followers to leave the house, and promoted a natural lifestyle that leaves cult members with a strong body odour, it added.

He was arrested with two other heads of the Carbon Nation cult whose names are unknown.

The National Police and the Panama Immigration Office reportedly found the sect in the district of San Carlos in the western Panamanian province of Panama Oeste after they launched an operation to follow the group.

The Panama Immigration Office said on Twitter: “Bishop and two other people of the 17 members of the Carbon Nation sect were sent back to their country of origin, the United States, for being considered a risk and threat to national security.”

The institution added: “Bishop had a biometric test when he was arrested confirming he is the citizen we have information about from social media and online media, and he is the leader of the sect so he was expelled from Panama.”

Other suspected sect members were reportedly arrested, although it is unclear how many.

The rest of the detainees are being investigated and might be expelled from the country as well, according to the Panama Immigration Office.

Local media said that Bishop, who comes from New York, arrived in Honduras in 2016 where he founded his sect under the name Melanation and then later changed it to Carbon Nation.

He then moved to Costa Rica, but was reportedly expelled from the country in 2017 over issues with the migration authorities.

The alleged cult leader reportedly lived in a house valued at $495,000 (£376,570) in an area known as Altos de Maria also in the Panama Oeste Province.

The sect members reportedly had problems in the past travelling by plane due to their body odour.