According to reports received by the BBC, several children have been rescued from the center of a Jewish sect located in a forest in Mexico.
The action was taken against the Jewish sect Lev Tahor during an investigation into the illegal transportation of young children.
The children, including boys and girls, are being sent to their families in Israel.
Lev Tahor in Hebrew means 'the pure of heart', and the sect imposes strict religious restrictions on its adherents.
The sect encourages early marriage, advocates harsh punishments for children for minor offenses, and mandates full-body covering for women and girls as young as three.
These strictures have earned it the name of the Jewish Taliban, who treat the Afghan people, especially women, harshly.
The police did this operation on Friday.
An official involved in the operation, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the BBC that the children were immediately separated from the rest of the group because authorities feared they might identify them to prevent their recovery. do no harm.
A four-member team of Israeli volunteers, including former agents of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, accompanied the Mexican police during the preparation and execution of the operation. This preparation was started about two years ago when a relative of these agents asked him for help in this regard.
The sect had been active in Guatemala for which Israeli volunteers made several trips and began surveillance together with local authorities. In January of this year, 40 to 50 members of the sect illegally crossed the border into Mexico and camped in a forest. Meanwhile, the authorities continued to monitor him.
In 2018, allegations of kidnappings against the cult's leadership in Guatemala surfaced after two children, who had been taken from the cult's clutches by their mother to New York, were kidnapped again. They were recovered from Mexico three weeks later.
A case was registered against nine members of the group in this incident. Four of them have been convicted, including the son of the sect's founder Nikmin Hilbarans. One was convicted but released after serving a custodial sentence, while another will be sentenced in November. Two are pending trial and one is in custody in Guatemala.
Lev Tahor was founded in Israel in 1988 by Rabbi Shalom Hilberans. Later he moved to America. In 1994, he was jailed for two years in a kidnapping case. In 2017, he drowned in Mexico.
The number of members of this sect is around 350 and it has been moving from one country to another due to being noticed by the local authorities. Its members are spread across Israel, America, Macedonia, Mexico and Guatemala. It has between 70 and 80 members in Guatemala.
The sect is called ultra-Orthodox but has its own rules and regulations and an Israeli court has declared it a 'dangerous sect'.
Its leaders deny accusations of violating local laws, and say they are being targeted because of their beliefs.
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