Two kids who were kidnapped from an upstate family retreat earlier this month were found in a small town near Mexico City on Friday — as three men charged in their disappearance appeared in White Plains federal court, federal officials said.
The children — Yante Helbrans, 14, and Chaim Helbrans, 12 — had last been seen getting into a vehicle outside a home in Woodridge, NY, on Dec. 8 — just weeks after being reunited with their mom, Sara Helbrans.
Helbrans had escaped to Brooklyn with her six children last month after fleeing from an extreme Jewish community in Guatemala known as “Lev Tahor.”
The group has come under repeated accusations of child neglect and abuse, and has bounced over the years from Israel, to Brooklyn, to Quebec and finally to Guatemala.
The three men charged in the kidnapping were leaders or members of Lev Tahor, and were detained in Mexico on Dec. 18 by the FBI and Mexican authorities.
The kids, whom authorities located in the small town of Tenango del Aire, Mexico, are expected to be flown back early next week to their mom in Brooklyn — who was emotional upon hearing the news.
“She was crying with joy,” Brooklyn community advocate Yakov Flitchkin told The Post. “She felt like an angel in heaven came and gave her what she waiting for.”
The suspects in the kidnapping include Lev Tahor leader Nachman Helbrans, 36 — Sara’s brother. The group was founded in Jerusalem in 1987 by their father, Shlomo Helbrans.
Influential group leader Mayer Rosner, 42, and his 20-year-old son, Jacob Rosner, were also arrested for their roles in the disappearance of the two kids.
All three were charged with kidnapping, as was an alleged Brooklyn co-conspirator and money-man who appeared in White Plains court earlier this week, Aron Rosner.
“These charges and arrests send a clear message that if you are involved in child abduction, we will find you and bring you to justice,” said Manhattan US Attorney Geoffrey Berman.
The suspects are accused of taking the kids to Mexico, disguised in non-religious clothing that included a Superman hat, via a small airport in Scranton, Pa.
They were able to pull off the 3 a.m. kidnapping several weeks ago by sneaking a cellphone to Yante — to coordinate the pickup outside the home in Woodridge — through an unnamed co-conspirator who’s cooperating with the feds, officials said.
Sara Helbrans said she first riled Lev Tahor’s leadership earlier this year when she objected to the arranged marriage of Yante — who was only 13 at the time — to Jacob Rosner, according to custody filings she submitted last month in Brooklyn Family Court.
After months of being emotionally abused and ostracized, the mom says she fled Lev Tahor’s rundown, wooded compound in Guatemala with three of her kids, the filings say.
The remaining three children were later located and flown to Brooklyn, the court documents say.
In the filings, Sara Helbrans accuses Lev Tahor of being a “cult.”
The Brooklyn judge granted her temporary custody of her six children, as well as an order of protection against her husband, pending a Jan. 3 court date.