The intense secrecy was due to Scientology's acute legal difficulties at the time. The Church was embroiled in a huge scandal that posed major dangers for Hubbard personally. His wife Mary Sue and a number of other Scientologists had been arrested by the FBI the previous year and charged with running an enormous espionage network, Operation Snow White, against the U.S. government. Hubbard himself was named as an "unindicted co-conspirator". He went into hiding in a desert ranch in La Quinta, which was codenamed "W" (for "winter headquarters"). Gilman Hot Springs was similarly codenamed "S", for "summer headquarters". The La Quinta property was closed down in March 1978 and Hubbard moved to an apartment complex in Hemet, codenamed "X".