INTERPOL has arrested Yoel Alter, aged 35, a senior member of the Lev Tahor cult, in Guatemala.
Alter, who was dressed in the cult's characteristic brown cloak when he was outside a government center for the treatment of minors in the Guatemalan capital, is wanted in Mexico for suspected human trafficking and is expected to be extradited in the coming days.
The arrest comes at the height of a crisis surrounding the cult in Guatemala where 148 children are being held after they were separated from their parents who are suspected of severe abuse.
According to the authorities, the cult's young mothers are suspected of starving their children at the behest of the cult's leadership in an attempt to put pressure on the government.
Alter is the second cult member to be arrested in Central America in the past month. At the beginning of the month, Jonathan Emmanuel Cardona Castillo, who was on the run after being charged with child abuse, was arrested.
In December police raided the cult's compound in Santa Rosa, Guatemala, and rescued 160 minors and 40 women.