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.
Comments