Colombia raids hotel hosting ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect, rescues 17 children

SCMP | Nov. 24, 2025, 2:10 p.m. | Original
VID

Interpol’s headquarters in Lyon, France. A French judicial official says Friday Oct.5, 2018 the president of Interpol has been reported missing after traveling to China. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity for an ongoing investigation, said Meng Hongwei’s wife reported him missing on Friday. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani, File)

Immigration authorities in Colombia have taken 17 children into protective custody after they were rescued from an ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect whose members have been accused of sexually abusing and kidnapping minors in several countries.

Gloria Esperanza Arriero, the director of Colombia’s national immigration service, said on Monday that her agency questioned nine members of the Lev Tahor sect during a hotel inspection on Sunday.

“We will likely deport them,” Arriero said, “because there are no arrest orders for them in Colombia.”

She said that the group of 17 children and nine adults arrived in Colombia during the last week of October and were staying in a hotel in the small northwestern city of Yarumal while they searched for a rural property they could use to start up a new site in the South American country.
Arriero said that there were Interpol yellow notices for five children in the group, who have American and Guatemalan passports. The notices are global alerts issued for people who have been reported as missing or those considered victims of parental or criminal abduction.

The official said that her agency decided to act after residents informed police about the presence of members of the sect in Yarumal, a town in northwest Colombia.

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