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Lev Tahor cult members escape detention - was the raid for nothing?


The Lev Tahor cult members who were arrested last week managed to escape the detention facility they were being held in on Thursday after using extreme violence against enforcement officials.


The approximately 20 members of the cult were arrested in Mexico during a raid conducted by Mexican police together with a delegation of Israelis.


"They wouldn't let us leave", said David Rosales, a member of the cult, after the escape. "This is a violation of freedom and religious rights."


Jewish sect held in Mexico overpower guards to flee


About 20 members of a Jewish sect held at a facility in Mexico after a police raid on their jungle base have fled.


Footage showed men, women, and children streaming out of the site in Huixtla, in the west, on Wednesday night.


They had been there since the raid last Friday when two members were arrested on suspicion of human trafficking and serious sexual offences.


The sect, Lev Tahor, is known for extremist practices and imposing a strict regime on its followers.


Lev Tahor members break out of Mexican shelter, escape in waiting vehicle


HUIXTLA, Mexico — About 20 members of an extreme ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect overpowered guards and escaped a government shelter in southern Mexico where they had been held since one of their leaders was arrested last Friday on organized crime and human trafficking allegations.


Mostly made up of children wearing long, flowing robes, members of the Lev Tahor sect pushed their way out of the complex Wednesday night, climbing over one guard from a private security company who had fallen to the ground. The federal government’s shelter for children and families in Huixtla usually receives migrants detained by immigration officials.


They climbed aboard a waiting truck outside and headed toward Mexico’s border with Guatemala. Local police, the National Guard, and Mexico’s immigration agency said they did not pursue them.


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