3 Lev Tahor Members Abduct 8 Children To Belize On Shabbat, 3 Other Children Rescued
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NEW YORK (VINnews) — As rabbis, religious leaders, and activists work to dismantle the dangerous Lev Tahor cult, whose leaders abuse children, force marriages at age 13, and commit numerous other crimes, three men of the cult escaped last Saturday with eight children and successfully smuggled them into the neighboring country of Belize, on the shores of the Caribbean Sea. Three additional children were discovered before they could be smuggled out and were returned to social welfare facilities in Guatemala, but eight remain missing.
The eleven children were kidnapped about a month ago. As mentioned, three were found immediately, while the other eight hid with the kidnappers in Guatemala, waiting for the right moment to smuggle them out. To do so, they chose Saturday, a time when authorities were less suspicious, thus lowering their guard.
After extensive searches and a large-scale manhunt, two of the kidnappers were arrested in Belize: 25-year-old Chaim Tzvi Malka and 35-year-old Avraham Dinkel. Dinkel had previously been documented assaulting a charedi man who had traveled to Guatemala to rescue children from the cult. The two men fled on Saturday with a group of girls from Guatemala and contacted a third individual, Moshe Yehuda Leib Alter, to bring the boys.
Alter arrived with the boys, raising the suspicions of Belizean police, who arrested Malka and Dinkel. However, Alter managed to escape with the eight children, and Belizean authorities are now searching for them. According to sources assisting in the rescue of cult children, Belize and Guatemala have a border dispute and do not cooperate, while Belizean laws are relatively lax. As a result, there is currently no extradition agreement from Belize to Guatemala.
As previously reported, on December 20, 2024, Guatemalan authorities raided the Lev Tahor cult compound in San Rosa, about 90 kilometers from the capital, following reports of abuse, rescuing at least 160 minors. Since then, the children have been in a welfare facility after suffering mistreatment, starvation, and neglect at the hands of the cult.
Content retrieved from: https://vinnews.com/2025/02/25/579705/.
