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REVEALED: Members of 'Jewish Taliban' cult raided in Mexico 'planned to flee to IRAN'


An extremist Jewish sect living in southern Mexico may have been forming plans to flee to Iran before their compound was raided last week.


The Lev Tahor compound near Tapachula, in far southern Mexico, was raided early on Friday by Mexican federal police cooperating with a team of advisors from Israel, including former Mossad agents.


Two sect leaders -- identified as Menachem Mendel Alter and Moshe Joseph Rosner -- were arrested on charges of human trafficking, and roughly 19 women and children from the group are being held at a migrant facility in Huixtla.


Members of Jewish cult Lev Tahor arrested in Mexico on drug, rape charges


Mexican authorities arrested members of the Jewish Lev Tahor sect in a raid in which a three-year-old boy was returned to his father who had fled the community, Israel said Tuesday.


The raid took place on Friday "after the Mexican police collected incriminating evidence against several people in the sect on suspicion of drug trafficking, rape and more", the Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement.


Lev Tahor was formed in the 1980s and members practice an ultra-Orthodox form of Judaism in which women wear black tunics covering them from head to toe.


Israeli media outlets said the arrest operation took place in Tapachula, a town near Mexico's southeastern border with Guatemala.


Mexican police raid ‘Jewish Taliban’ cult compound, arrest 26


Mexican police have raided a compound of the extremist Lev Tahor cult along the border with Guatemala, rescuing, among others, a toddler whose father had escaped the cult years ago.


Twenty-six cult members, including its leader Menachem Endel Alter, were arrested in the raid, which took place over the weekend in the southern Mexican city of Tapachula.


The cult members have been involved in organized crime including human trafficking, rape and drug trafficking, among other serious offenses.


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