Interpol has issued a global arrest warrant for Jonathan Emmanuel Cardona Castillo, a 23-year-old leader of the Lev Tahor cult, on charges brought by Guatemalan authorities.
The Red Notice outlines allegations against Castillo, including human trafficking, “assault”, and child abuse. He holds dual citizenship in Guatemala, where Lev Tahor is headquartered, and El Salvador. According to the notice, Castillo is fluent in both Hebrew and Spanish.
Guatemalan law enforcement and prosecutors, cited by the Associated Press, have confirmed Castillo’s prominent role within the cult.
As YWN reported a week ago, the Guatemalan police carried out a massive raid of the Lev Tahor cult rescuing 160 children and teens and 40 women after testimonies of severe abuse at the cult’s compound.
The raid, involving over 400 police officers, soldiers, and psychologists, took place following testimonies from four minors who escaped from the cult last month and provided shocking details to the police about serious offenses. A formal complaint was filed to the Guatemalan state prosecutor’s office, which decided to launch an operation to rescue the minors in the cult.
At the time of the raid, no arrests were made, but computers, phones, and other equipment that could serve as evidence were confiscated.
In a bazaar twist to the saga, heartbreaking scenes published on social media emerged the day after the children were taken into protective custody.
In the videos, the adult cult members are heard instructing the children [in Yiddish] to hit the police and that the police “are not allowed to hit back. Don’t be afraid. They can’t do anything to you.”
The cult members also order the children to escape “from the top” or to kick the police officers and crawl out from underneath their feet.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
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6 Responses
I don’t think we have to look very far to investigate this fella’s yichus. If he hadn’t gotten roped into LT he might’ve come to the States via Joe Biden’s open border and burned some poor innocent person alive.
There would be no איסור של מסירה לעכום to turn him in, since he is Halachically יצא מכלל עמיתיך
Most cults are this strong speaker that is able to talk to people into doing things with words they aren’t usually families living in huts, my question is how many of them come out knowing shas with rashi and tosfus, but this makes me crazy, in every cult there is the abuser and then the abusee even in communist countries it’s like this not everybody suffers sometimes it’s ninty percent but not all are the poor it’s possible that ten percent was abused and it still is a cult from the customs that they have, don’t want to do loshon hara for no purpose
Just like every other cult that the leaders sexually exploit the followers.
But new leaders will just pop out like weeds.
Wow, look how he far he came – from such humble beginnings to leader of a kehillah! And he’s only in his twenties…
“AT THE TIME OF THE RAID, NO ARRESTS WERE MADE”
Can anybody figure out why ???????