Interior Minister Francisco Jiménez stated that the national police and the local prosecutor's office conducted a raid as part of an operation to rescue and protect minors at risk. Jimenez revealed that excavations at the sect's compound uncovered the remains of a six-month-old infant.

The four children, all American citizens, were freed during the operation. The US Embassy expressed gratitude to Guatemalan authorities via a post on the social media platform X, emphasizing that the safety of American citizens remains its top priority.

Details about the children's ages and identities remain undisclosed due to child protection laws. Authorities expect to transfer the children to the US Embassy, which will facilitate their return to the United States within the next 24 hours. In January, the sect's leader, Aaron Teller, faced arrest on suspicion of orchestrating underage marriages. Throughout 2024, over 160 minors were rescued from Lev Tahor in Guatemala and Mexico.

Operativo "#LevTahor Fase 2" en proceso.

Fuerzas Especiales de @PNCdeGuatemala en apoyo a #PGN rescatan y protegen a 4 menores de edad con reporte Alba-Keneth. #Oratorio, #SantaRosa.

¡Excelente resultado Viceministra Palencia! @mingobguate @HSI_HQ pic.twitter.com/E9wg272m1V

— Francisco Jiménez (@FJimenezmingob) May 14, 2025

Lev Tahor established its base in Guatemala in 2013 after fleeing Mexico and Canada, where members faced persecution for similar allegations of child abuse. In Mexico, a case against the sect has been ongoing since 2022, with accusations of human trafficking and sexual abuse of minors following the rescue of a group of children from the sect in Tapachula, Chiapas.

The post Infant remains found, American kids freed in raid on Jewish cult appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Mexican authorities arrested a leader of an extremist ultra-orthodox Jewish sect in southern Mexico accused of organized crime and human trafficking, state and federal officials said Tuesday.

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Officials also said an unspecified number of women and children were removed from the Lev Tahor group's compound. The organized crime office of the Attorney General's Office led the weekend operation in the municipality of Tapachula near Mexico's border with Guatemala, said a federal official who insisted on speaking anonymously because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the case.

A state law enforcement official, who also was not authorized to speak publicly about the case, identified the arrested leader as Menachem Endel Alter of Jerusalem.

On Tuesday, Moshe Alter, Endel Alter's brother, delivered food to about two dozen women and children held at a government shelter. He said authorities had also taken away a 3-month-old baby whose mother was now in the shelter. He said he did not know where the baby was taken. At the shelter gate, girls and young women wearing long, flowing white hooded robes shouted at officials and banged on the perimeter wall to protest the detentions.

"They are illegally detained," said Nissan Malka, one of the protesters. Moshe Alter said another man from the community was also arrested over the weekend, but authorities did not confirm the second arrest. Members of the community identified him as Moshe Joseph Rosner. Moshe Alter said the trouble stems from what he called a political-religious conflict with former members of Lev Tahor who are trying to dismantle it.

Lev Tahor has had legal problems elsewhere. Last November, two leaders of the group were convicted of kidnapping and child sexual exploitation crimes in New York. They allegedly kidnapped two children from their mother to return a 14-year-old girl to an illegal sexual relationship with an adult male. The sect is known to have members in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Guatemala and Israel. The events played out over the Jewish new year Rosh Hashanah, which concludes Tuesday at sundown.

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