Tuesday 27 September 2022 10:56 PM Mexican cops raid Lev Tahor sect in Chiapas trends now
Police in Mexico have conducted a raid on an extremist Jewish sect known for advocating child marriage, arresting two men and reuniting a young boy with his father who left the cult.
Mexican federal police, with the help of a volunteer team of Israelis including former Mossad agents, stormed the Lev Tahor compound near Tapachula on Friday morning, according to a BBC report citing Israeli sources close to the operation.
Multiple children were rescued, and one, age three, was reunited with his father Yisrael Amir, a former Lev Tahor member who has been trying to gain custody since disavowing the sect several years ago.
Lev Tahor, dubbed a 'dangerous cult' by Israeli courts, has faced allegations of kidnapping and sexual abuse, and its strict rules mandating head-to-toe coverings for women have led some to dub the group the 'Jewish Taliban'.
The group in Tapachula, which is in Mexico's Chiapas state in far southern Mexico, has lived there since leaving Guatemala in 2014 following friction with locals and tourists there.
Lev Tahor members are seen in Guatemala in 2014. After facing friction with locals, the group soon moved across the border into Mexico, where a compound was raided on Friday
Yisrael Amir, a former Lev Tahor member who disavowed the sect years ago, is seen returning to Israel with his three-year-old son, who was rescued in the raid in Mexico
'From the moment I escaped, I only had one dream: to save my son from the nightmare of living in a cult,' said Amir, seen returning to Israel with his son
Amir flew home to Israel with his young son, telling reporters after arriving at Ben-Gurion Airport on Tuesday: 'From the moment I escaped, I only had one dream: to save my son from the nightmare of living in a cult.'
'I now look forward to building my new life as a young father in Israel. I couldn't abandon him to live a life of brutally strict rules, mind control, starvation and misery,' he added, according to N12 News.
Israel's foreign ministry said that 26 people were found in the compound on Friday, and that two of them, a Canadian and an Israeli citizen, were arrested on charges of human trafficking and sex offenses including rape.
Five more were detained for allegedly breaking immigration rules, and the remaining members, including children, are being housed by the Mexican Ministry of Welfare, Israel said.
Children in the group were quickly separated from the adults, due to fears that sect members would rather kill them than surrender custody, Israeli sources said.
Lev Tahor members in Mexico
