WHITE PLAINS — Two members of Lev Tahor, an extremist religious group, were convicted in federal court last week on kidnapping charges involving a 14-year-old girl and a 12-year old boy from Woodridge.

Cousins Mordechay Malka, 27, and Matityau Malka, 30, were convicted in White Plains federal court following a three-week jury trial.

Prosecutors say that the cousins smuggled the two children across the U.S. border to Mexico after abducting them from their mother in December, 2018. Once in Mexico, prosecutors say the underage girl was brought to her adult “husband,” who she had religiously “married” when she was 13-years-old. 

After the children were recovered and returned to their mother, the defendants and their co-conspirators tried to kidnap the children a second time in March, 2019. 

Two co-conspirators, Nachman Helbrans and Mayer Rosner, were previously convicted of kidnapping and sexual exploitation charges in connection with this case after an October, 2021 trial and have each been sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Prosecutors say that Mordechay and Matityau are both U.S. citizens and members of Lev Tahor, an extremist Ultra-Orthodox sect often described as a cult.

The group has reportedly operated in New York, Israel, Canada, Mexico and Guatemala. 

In or around October 2018, the mother of the two minors escaped from Lev Tahor’s compound in Guatemala and arrived in the United States in early November, 2018.  That same month, a Brooklyn family court granted her sole custody of the children and prohibited the children’s father, a leader within Lev Tahor, from communicating with them.

That’s when federal prosecutors say members of Lev Tahor devised a plan to kidnap the children. In December of that year, the kidnappers took the children in the middle of the night from their home in Woodridge. The kidnappers transported them through various states and, eventually, to Mexico. 

Prosecutors say that  Mordechay Malka and his co-conspirators used disguises, aliases, drop phones, fake travel documents, an encrypted application and a secret pact to carry out their kidnapping plan. 

Following a three-week search involving hundreds of local, federal and international law enforcement officers, the two children were recovered in Mexico and returned to their mother in New York.

Then, in March 2019, members of Lev Tahor again tried to kidnap the children.  The leader of Lev Tahor, Nachman Helbrans, attempted the kidnapping of the children while incarcerated in Westchester, New York. Prosecutors say Matityau Malka  acted as the operative on the ground to execute the attempted kidnapping.

Both men were convicted of one count of conspiring to commit international parental kidnapping, to unlawfully use a means of identification, and to enter by false pretenses the secure area of an airport, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.  Mordechay Malka was also convicted of two counts of international parental kidnapping, which carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison for each count.  Matityau Malka was also convicted of one count of attempted international parental kidnapping, which carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison for each count.

Sentencing is expected to occur at a later date.

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, praised the outstanding work of the FBI, United States Customs and Border Protection, the Department of State, the Transportation Security Administration and the New York State Police. Williams also thanked the Rockland County Sheriff’s office, the Sullivan County District Attorney’s Office, the Village of Spring Valley Police Department, Special Agents with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, and law enforcement partners in Mexico, Guatemala, Canada, and Israel.