Twenty members of the Jewish sect Lev Tahor had escaped from a detention facility in southern Mexico, where they are being held on charges of drug trafficking and rape, a local official said on Friday.
The escape took place at dawn in Huixtla (Chiapas state, south), about 190 km from the Guatemalan border. Television footage shows members of the group, including several minors, wearing white robes and attacking two guards when one of them fell to the ground.
Members of the sect were taken to the scene last Friday (30) after an operation in a house in the city of Tapachula (Chiapas) that ended with the arrest of 20 members and six more. Among those detained were Israelis, Canadians and Americans.
“Mexican police found evidence of drug trafficking, rape and other crimes that point to several members of the sect,” the operation said.
Lev Tahor was founded in the 1980s and its members practice an ultra-Orthodox version of Judaism, in which women wear black robes from head to toe.
According to various media, the group crossed Mexico in January from Guatemala, where they had arrived eight years ago.
The same versions show that the sect, consisting of about 300 members, had to branch out in various countries under the suspicion of the authorities for crimes such as child abuse.
source: Noticias
