NXIVM sex cult leader Keith Raniere recruited from the same Mormon community slaughtered by cartel gunmen in Mexico, it has been alleged.

Nine members of the LeBaron family were attacked eight miles apart on Monday while traveling in a convoy of three SUVS on a dirt road.

Police confirmed they have arrested a suspected drug lord after the killings which left one vehicle torched and riddled with bullets.

And it has since emerged the remote Mormon stronghold in Mexico, founded by U.S. citizens fleeing a polygamy ban, was also a target for NXIVM founder Raniere.

Raniere is said to have told the Mormon women living close in the Mexican border he could lead them safety, away from drug violence, The Slate reported in May.

NXIVM sex cult leader Keith Raniere, pictured, reportedly recruited from the same Mormon community slaughtered by cartel gunmen. Raniere was convicted of racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, forced labor conspiracy, sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy and attempted sex trafficking in June

Rhonita Miller, pictured, and four of her children - her six-month-old twins, Titus and Tiana, her 10-year-old daughter Krystal and 12-year-old son Howard - were all killed Monday

At least three American mothers and six children from a Mormon community based in northern Mexico have been massacred in an attack blamed on drug cartel gunmen. Maria Rhonita Miller was killed along with her six-month-old twins, Titus and Tiana (left and right), her 10-year-old daughter Krystal (left) and 12-year-old son Howard (center)

The women were then recruited to be nannies on his New York compound, The New York Post reports.

The cult leader has been convicted of racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, forced labor conspiracy, sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy and attempted sex trafficking in June.

Mark Vicente, a documentary maker who worked with Raniere, said a film they made together became a recruiting tool for Nxivm.

It shows Raniere speaking with Julian LeBaron, whose brother Benjamin LeBaron, founder of a crime-fighting group called SOS Chihuahua, was assassinated in 2009.

Julian LeBaron said he 'never agreed for the Raniere film to be used as a recruiting tool'

Following the allegations against Raniere Julian said: 'I never agreed for the film to be used as a recruiting tool of any kind.'

LeBaron confirmed Monday some of his family members had been burned alive in the cartel linked slaughter.

'We don't know why, though they had received indirect threats. We don't know who did it,' he told Reuters.

He said on his Facebook page that one of those dead was his cousin Rhonita Maria LeBaron, later identified as Rhonita Miller.

Miller and four of her children - her six-month-old twins, Titus and Tiana, her 10-year-old daughter Krystal and 12-year-old son Howard - were all killed.

Another two mothers, Dawna Langford and Christina Langford Johnson, as well as Dawna's sons, aged 11 and three, were also all killed.

The mothers were driving in separate vehicles with their children from the La Mora religious community where they live, which is a decades-old settlement in Sonora state founded as part of an offshoot of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

A video posted on social media showed the charred and smoking remains of their vehicle riddled with bullet holes.

Christina’s son Devin walked 13 miles to get help from relatives. He covered his injured siblings with branches before trying to make out where the shots were coming from to avoid the gunmen as he walked away.

Mexican Security Secretary Alfonso Durazo said the gunmen may have mistaken the group's large SUVs for those of rival gangs.

A video posted on social media showed the charred remains of one of the vehicles riddled with bullet holes that was apparently carrying the victims when the attack happened

The slaughter of U.S. citizens on Mexican soil quickly became an international issue with President Donald Trump on Tuesday vowing to help Mexico wage a war on its drug cartels.

Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he would discuss security on Tuesday with the U.S. after Trump fired off a series of tweets.

Northwestern Mexico has been home to small Mormon and Mormon-linked communities of U.S. origin since the late 19th century. The early Mormon settlers in Mexico fled the threat of arrest in the United States for practicing polygamy.