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Police in Mexico have raided an extremist Jewish sect known for advocating child marriage, arresting two men and reuniting a young boy with his father who left the sect.
Mexican federal police stormed the Lev Tahor complex near Tapachula on Friday morning with the help of a volunteer team of Israelis, including former Mossad agents, according to a statement. BBC report cite Israeli sources close to the operation.
Several children were rescued and one of the three was reunited with his father Yisrael Amir, a former Lev Tahor member who has been seeking custody since he denied the cult several years ago.
Lev Tahor, called a “dangerous cult” by Israeli courts, has faced accusations of kidnapping and sexual abuse, and the strict rules requiring women to cover up from head to toe have led some to call the group the “Jewish Taliban.” to call.
The group in Tapachula, in the Mexican state of Chiapas in the extreme south of Mexico, has lived there since leaving Guatemala in 2014 after friction with locals and tourists there.
Members of Lev Tahor are seen in Guatemala in 2014. After friction with locals, the group soon crossed the border into Mexico, where a compound was raided on Friday.
Yisrael Amir, a former Lev Tahor member who denied the cult years ago, returns to Israel with his three-year-old son, who was rescued in the raid on Mexico
“From the moment I escaped, I had only one dream: to save my son from the nightmare of living in a cult,” Amir said when he returned to Israel with his son.
Amir flew to Israel with his young son and told reporters after arriving at Ben-Gurion Airport on Tuesday, “From the moment I escaped, I had only one dream: to save my son from the nightmare of living in a cult.”
“I am now looking forward to building my new life as a young father in Israel. I could not abandon him to live a life of relentlessly strict rules, mind control, hunger and misery,” he added, according to N12 News.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said 26 people were found in the compound on Friday and two of them, a Canadian and an Israeli citizen, were arrested on charges of human trafficking and sex crimes, including rape.
Five others have been detained for allegedly violating immigration rules, and the remaining members, including children, are being housed by Mexico’s Ministry of Welfare, Israel said.
Children in the group were quickly separated from the adults, fearing that cult members would rather kill them than give up custody, Israeli sources said.
Members of Lev Tahor in Mexico allege they are being held in “inhumane conditions” in an institution in Huixtla, and that they are being persecuted for their faith by the Israeli government, Diario de Chiapas reported.
Members of Lev Tahor are seen at Guatemala City’s La Aurora airport in 2021. The group’s insistence on head-to-toe coverings for women earned it the nickname “Jewish Taliban.”
Members of the Lev Tahor group on the street in Guatemala 2014
Police saw a 2018 raid on a Lev Tahor compound in Mexico after a mother accused the cult of forcing her 13-year-old daughter to marry a leader’s son
The families detained in the raid also claimed they had the proper permission and paperwork to live in Mexico.
Representatives of the Mexican Immigration Bureau and the Office of the Attorney General of the State of Chiapas did not immediately respond to messages from DailyMail.com on Tuesday.
Nachman Helbrans, the son of the group’s founder, was convicted last year of kidnapping and sexual exploitation of children.
Among those taken into custody in the raid were Israelis with dual citizenship, including Canada, the US and Guatemala, Israel’s Foreign Ministry said.
Amir, the estranged father seeking custody of his son, and other relatives of the cult have been urging Mexican authorities to crack down on the group for years.
A four-member volunteer team from Israel, including former Mossad agents, assisted Mexican police in planning and carrying out the operation, the BBC said.
The federal police and officers of the public prosecutor’s office carried out the raid following an investigation by the Special Prosecutor for Organized Crime (FEMDO).
Lev Tahor insists that it does not violate local laws in the countries where its members reside.
Founded in Israel in the 1980s, the group has moved and scattered frequently, with members living in the US, Canada, North Macedonia, Morocco, Mexico, and Guatemala.
Last November, two New York cult leaders were convicted of kidnapping and sexually exploiting children.
Shlomo Helbrans (pictured left in 1992) founded Lev Tahor in Israel after he was deported from the US for kidnapping a 13-year-old boy. He was later granted refugee status in Canada and claimed he was being persecuted by the Israeli government for his anti-Zionist teachings.
Nachman Helbrans, 39, and Mayer Rosner, 45, were each sentenced to 12 years in federal prison.
American lawyer Damian Williams said the men brutally kidnapped two of their mother’s children overnight to bring a 14-year-old girl back into an illicit sexual relationship with an adult man.”
The charges against the men include conspiracy to transport a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, which carries a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life in prison.
Helbrans, the son of Lev Tahor founder Shlomo Helbrans, became the cult’s leader in 2017 and Rosner was its top lieutenant, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said the younger Helbrans and his leadership team tightly controlled the group and embraced extreme practices, including child marriage and sex with minors.