Three more alleged leaders of an extremist Jewish sect have been arrested on charges of kidnapping two children in New York City and the children have been found safe in Mexico, authorities said on Friday.
The three, plus a fourth man arrested earlier, have been charged with abducting the victims — 14-year-old Yante Teller and her 12-year-old brother Chaim Teller — on Dec. 8 from their home in upstate New York and taking them out of the country.
“As alleged in the complaint, the defendants engaged in a terrifying kidnapping of two children in the middle of the night, taking the children across the border to Mexico,” US Attorney Geoffrey Berman said.
“Thankfully, the kidnappers were no match for the perseverance of the FBI, the New York State Police and Mexican authorities, and the children were recovered this morning after a nearly three-week search,” Berman said.
Aron Rosner was arrested in New York City on Sunday last week, while Nachman Helbrans, Mayer Rosner and Jacob Rosner were arrested on Thursday after they were deported from Mexico to New York City.
Their attorney did not return an e-mail seeking comment.
Authorities have said that the men are leaders of Lev Tahor, an extremist Jewish sect based in Guatemala.
The FBI said in the court filings that the children’s mother had been a “voluntary member” of Lev Tahor, but fled the group in the past few weeks after its leadership became increasingly extreme.
Her father, Shlomo Helbrans, founded the sect and was in 1994 convicted of kidnapping a 13-year-old in New York.
Shlomo Helbrans was later deported to Israel. He drowned in Mexico last year.
Nachman Helbrans is the brother of the kidnapped children’s mother and had become the new leader of the sect, authorities said.
FBI Agent Jonathan Lane referred in the criminal complaint against the defendants to reports of Lev Tahor subjecting children to “physical, sexual and emotional abuse.”
The kidnapping victims were found on Friday morning in the Mexican town of Tenango del Aire and plans are underway to reunite them with their mother, Berman said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese