Colombia Expels Lev Tahor Members After Attempt To Rebuild Secretive Enclave

Colombian immigration officials on Monday deported nine adults and seventeen minors linked to the Lev Tahor cult after authorities uncovered their plan to re-establish the group in a remote region of the country, according to officials.

The deportees were placed on a flight to New York under police escort.

Authorities said the group had been staying at a hotel in Yarumal, in the Norte de Antioquia region, when officials learned they intended to relocate to an isolated private property nearby. “Their intention was to disappear into private land, and this raised serious concerns,” a security source said.

Immigration officials designated the group as a “threat to national security” and raised alarms about potential violations of children’s rights. The operation was carried out together with a regional child-protection unit.

Paula Salazar, director of the regional immigration authority, said that “Colombia has implemented an administrative deportation of the nine adults due to concerns about national security. The minors remained in custody on the flight until their full transfer to US authorities.”

Several of the minors were taken into the care of US Child Protective Services after authorities discovered that five of them, citizens of Canada, the United States, and Guatemala, were listed under an Interpol Yellow Notice amid fears of human trafficking, kidnapping, or exploitation.

The removal came one week after officials rescued seventeen minors from remnants of the group in Colombia on November 23. According to local authorities, families linked to Lev Tahor attempted to regroup in Colombia after the collapse of their base in Guatemala, but the effort was detected and stopped.