Lev Tahor
Lev TahorReuters

Two leaders of the extremist Jewish sect Lev Tahor were convicted Wednesday of kidnapping and child sexual exploitation crimes, prosecutors said, according to The Associated Press.

In a release, 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.

Helbrans, 39, and Rosner, 45, are both US citizens and both of Guatemala. The two had leadership roles in Lev Tahor. 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, prosecutors said.

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.

US District Judge Nelson S. Roman ruled for a second time on Wednesday that the alleged marriage was invalid, according to AP.

As part of the plot, the men kidnapped the girl and her brother in December 2018 and took them through various states and into Mexico, prosecutors said.

After a three-week search, the kidnapping victims were found in the Mexican town of Tenango del Aire and were returned to their mother, prosecutors said.

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.