|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
(AP) — Immigration authorities in Colombia have taken 17 children into protective custody after they were rescued from an ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect whose members have been accused of sexually abusing and kidnapping minors in several countries.
Gloria Esperanza Arriero, the director of Colombia’s national immigration service, told The Associated Press on Monday that her agency is questioning nine members of the Lev Tahor sect after they were detained on Sunday during a hotel inspection.
“We will likely deport them,” Arriero said, “because there are no arrest orders for them in Colombia.”
#EN6 | Las autoridades colombianas rescataron a 17 menores de la comunidad judía ortodoxa Lev Tahor en un operativo en un establecimiento hotelero de Yarumal, Antioquia. Cinco de ellos contaban con notificaciones de búsqueda de Interpol por presuntos casos de secuestro y trata de… pic.twitter.com/Gw9YC7rqQS
— El Noticiero (@elnoticiero_6) November 24, 2025
She said that the group of 17 children and nine adults arrived in Colombia during the last week of October, and were staying in a hotel in the small northwestern city of Yarumal while they searched for a rural property they could use to start up a new site in the South American country.
Arriero said that there were Interpol yellow notices for five children in the group, who have American and Guatemalan passports. The notices are global alerts issued for people who have been reported as missing, or are potential victims of parental, or criminal abduction.
The official said that her agency decided to act after residents informed police about the presence of members of the sect in Yarumal.
Entre los 17 menores rescatados de la secta Lev Tahor en Colombia hay niños guatemaltecos
Autoridades colombianas recuperaron a 17 menores que estaban bajo control de la secta ultraortodoxa Lev Tahor en Yarumal, Antioquia. Varios de ellos son originarios de Guatemala, según el… pic.twitter.com/rUhYykrgrX
— Canal Antigua (@CanalAntigua) November 24, 2025
“The positive thing in all of this is that we got to the children before they had a compound,” Arriero said. “Because in that case, we would have required a search warrant.”
In Colombia, immigration officials can conduct searches in hotels and check whether foreigners staying there have entered the country legally, or are wanted by law enforcement agencies.
Last year police in Guatemala raided a Lev Tahor compound in the Central American country, following reports of sexual abuse, taking at least 160 minors and 40 women into protective custody.
The sect has run into legal problems elsewhere.
In 2022, Mexican authorities arrested a leader of the sect near the Guatemalan border and removed a number of women and children from their compound. In 2021, two leaders of the group were convicted of kidnapping and child sexual exploitation crimes in New York.
Lev Tahor is known to have members in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Guatemala and Israel.
Who funds them? Some wealthy pedophiles that the authorites must track – that’s how Lev Tahor (Evil Heart) are making millions – traficers of children and women. These people are not Orthodox Jews – they are criminals dressed in orthodox cloths – find them – arrest them – convict them – all useless. Arrest and jail the money behind them – this has to be a lucrative business operting under the bribed eye of some (not all) authorities (corrupted) – they all making fortunes – that is why it never end – a highly profitable corrupt worldwide org.