WHITE PLAINS - A brother and sister missing from Woodridge have been found in Mexico and four men who prosecutors say were high-ranking members of an extremist Jewish sect have been charged with kidnapping them Prosecutors for the Southern District of New York said the children - 14-year-old Yante Teller and her 12-year-old brother Chaim Teller - were recovered Friday morning in Tenango del Aire Federal officials are working to bring them back to the U.S The other three men were apprehended in Mexico deported Thursday to New York and brought Friday to White Plains federal court “The defendants engaged in a terrifying kidnapping of two children in the middle of the night taking the children across the border to Mexico,” U.S Attorney Geoffrey Berman said via news release Prosecutors say the children were abducted Dec who had fled the Guatemala-based sect called Lev Tahor just six weeks earlier Prosecutors said published news reports have indicated children in the sect are often subjected to physical The children’s mother once voluntarily belonged to the group took over leadership and took a more extremist approach Prosecutors say Mayer Rosner holds a leadership role in Lev Tahor is Mayer Rosner’s son and the sect considered him to be Yante Teller's husband Prosecutors said the children’s mother spoke out against the Helbrans’ growing extremism with her six children and secured temporary sole custody of them from Kings County Family Court The court also issued an order of protection against the children’s father on their behalf Prosecutors said security footage captured images of Helbrans with the victims wearing modern clothing inconsistent with what Lev Tahor members normally wear Mayer Rosner participated in planning and phone calls about the plot and tried to persuade a former member of the sect The former member ended up providing law enforcement officers with information on the sect and plot Prosecutors said Jacob Rosner also helped plan the kidnapping and bought the modern clothing coordinated conference calls and handled logistics The investigation involved the FBI’s Hudson Valley Safe Streets Task Force New York State Police at Troop F and Troop NYC district attorney’s offices in Sullivan and Rockland counties were kidnapped from upstate New York by members of the Lev Tahor sect and taken to Guatemala 2018Two young teens who were kidnapped on a Shabbat morning after previously being rescued from a Jewish religious cult in Guatemala were found in Mexico more than three weeks after their disappearance Two leaders of the extremist Jewish sect Lev Tahor were convicted Wednesday of kidnapping and child sexual exploitation crimes US Attorney Damian Williams announced the verdict against Nachman Helbrans and Mayer Rosner He said the men “brazenly kidnapped two children from their mother in the middle of the night to return a 14-year-old girl to an illegal sexual relationship with an adult man.” The charges against the men included conspiring to transport a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity which carries a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life are both US citizens and both of Guatemala Prosecutor said Helbrans became the sect's leader in 2017 and Rosner was his top lieutenant The men were among a group that abducted a 14-year-old girl and her 12-year-old brother from their home in Woodridge in upstate New York and took them to Mexico The FBI has said that the children's mother had been a “voluntary member” of Lev Tahor but fled the group's community in Guatemala in October 2018 after its leadership became increasingly extreme After the mother and her children settled in New York Helbrans and Rosner devised a plan to return the girl to Guatemala to resume a relationship with her then-20-year-old “husband” after a supposed marriage that Helbrans had arranged Roman ruled for a second time on Wednesday that the alleged marriage was invalid the men kidnapped the girl and her brother in December 2018 and took them through various states and into Mexico the kidnapping victims were found in the Mexican town of Tenango del Aire and were returned to their mother They added that members of Lev Tahor tried to kidnap the children again in March 2019 and March of this year Helbrans and Rosner are among five leaders of Lev Tahor who were charged last April in connection with the case NEW YORK — A fifth member of an extremist Jewish sect has been charged in a new kidnapping plot related to the December abduction of two children from Woodridge in Sullivan County 8 after being lured outside their home by members of Lev Tahor Their mother had fled with her children from the sect after new leader Nachman Helbrans took the group in an increasingly extreme direction The sect considers Yante Teller to be the wife of 20-year-old Jacob Rosner federal prosecutors charged Jacob Rosner; his father and Mexican law enforcement officials had tracked Helbrans and Jacob and Mayer Rosner to a home outside Mexico City Lev Tahor member Matityau Moshe Malka and a fifth man the FBI arrested Malka on charges of conspiracy to commit kidnapping and conspiracy to obstruct justice According to the complaint filed in White Plains federal court met with Yante Teller in Brooklyn where the family has been staying providing her with at least four cell phones to put her in communication with a member of the sect identified in court papers only as “co-conspirator-1” and “the acting leader of the Lev Tahor community” who lives in Guatemala The mother found the phones and took them from her daughter The complaint says that the co-conspirator called the children’s mother on one occasion with Helbrans on the line despite the fact that Helbrans is confined at Westchester County Jail Prosecutors say the mother spoke with the co-conspirator about his communication with her daughter and that he threatened to kidnap her children if she didn’t allow Lev Tahor to take them back and they would not leave her alone until the children return to the sect The complaint says the co-conspirator threatened the mother: “I go with people in America and will take them out from under your hands and will take them back to their father with god’s help” and that there were people in New York prepared to take the children The complaint said the co-conspirator vowed to fight the mother to the death to get the children Malka met the girl outside the Brooklyn apartment where she and her family are living and gave her another cell phone Malka appeared in federal court that afternoon