BOGOTA, Colombia (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.
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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.
This cult includes both victims and perpetrators. The victims need to rescued, provided trauma therapy and other support. The perpetrators need to be arrested, detained, and put away for prison sentences longer than their life expectancy.
We need to constantly repeat that they are neither Torah Jews, nor are they moral enough to allow a Torah Jew to continue to live their own lives. These missionaries have taken a Torah, sliced and chopped it into their own personal religion, and imposed it on others. It is both criminal and beneath any semblance of morality. While the victims need psychological help, the perps need severe punishment. I don’t know if any relevant jurisdictions have a death penalty, but I would not consider that a basis for a pidyon shvuyim campaign. I’m not convinced that their carcasses should be interred in a Jewish cemetery.
Can’t we go just one calendar year without hearing about these degenerates in the news? It’s maddening that they haven’t been stamped out yet.
So when your in Shul trying to concentrate on your Davening and the fellow comes by for Tzedakah, always ask for a letter of approbation from a real Rav.
(Most collectors are collecting for a valid cause, but unfortunately some are from sects like these)
I feel so bad for these people so extreme that they reject main stream Orthodoxy.
What kind of parents force their children into a cult where their children will be sexually and physically abused? It is totally beyond comprehension. Where do these crazy evil people come from?