Authorities announced the return of two children who were allegedly kidnapped by members of a cult from their home in New York last month and were rescued in central Mexico.

The children were reunited with their mother this week, Mexico’s Federal Ministry revealed. The children were rescued by Mexican authorities working with the FBI in the town of Tenango Del Aire following the issuance of an Amber Alert in the U.S. It is believed the children were ultimately bound for Guatemala.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the two children were taken from their home Woodridge around December 8 and then smuggled into Mexico. The mother of the children recently left a religious organization in Guatemala called Lev Tahor.

The U.S. Attorney’s office revealed that:

Lev Tahor is an extremist Jewish sect based in Guatemala. Public news reports indicate that children in Lev Tahor are often subject to physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. The Mother was previously a voluntary member of Lev Tahor and her father was its founder and former leader, Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans. According to the Mother, the new leader of Lev Tahor, her brother NACHMAN HELBRANS, is more extreme than her father had been, and, as a result, she fled from the group. Prior to her escape, the Mother spoke out against the growing extremism within Lev Tahor. The Mother indicated that it was not safe to keep her children there. Upon entering the United States, the mother was granted temporary sole custody of the Victims, along with her four other children, in Kings County Family Court and an Order of Protection was issued against the Victims’ biological father on behalf of all six children.

In late December, federal authorities arrested Nachan Helbrans, Mayer Rosner, Aron Rosner, and Jacob Rosner for their alleged roles in the abduction and charged each of them with kidnapping and unlawfully transporting the children to Mexico. The four men are considered leaders within the religious organization.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and Stephen K. Bannon. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook . He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com .

Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and Stephen K. Bannon. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook . He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com .

Tony Aranda from the Cartel Chronicles project Contributed to this report.