The three brothers Yakov, 34, Shmiel, 28, and Yoil Weingarten, 36—all leaders of the Guatemala-based Lev Tahor cult—were sentenced to 14, 14 and a dozen years, respectively, on Tuesday for “child sexual exploitation and kidnapping offenses,” the U.S. Justice Department stated. Each will also have five subsequent years of supervised release.
“The sentencing of the Weingarten brothers holds them accountable for kidnapping children from their mother in the middle of the night, including for the purpose of coercing a child into a sexual relationship with an adult,” said Damian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. “This office will do everything in its power to protect children and use every available tool to investigate and prosecute those who sexually exploit them.”
According to the Justice Department, the three brothers “masterminded a scheme to kidnap a 14-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy from their mother in Woodridge, N.Y.” and smuggled the children to Mexico, where they reunited the girl with her adult “husband” to “allow him to continue his illegal sexual relationship.”
A jury convicted the brothers in March.
