Did do-gooder, nosy American Mormon moms get themselves and kids killed in Cartel territory?

What makes you think they are do-gooders? Last I saw, Mormons ran one of the bloodiest cartels in Mexico.

Ooh, that is an infamous family. Anyone else remember the Lamb-of-God murders?

I was completely unfamiliar with their notoriety, R1 & R2. I just saw the story on the DM which usually gets sensationalistic news before MSM outlets. The alleged self-professed "pristine" nature of Mormons made the story interesting. Kind of like the Jody Arias murder trial.

I don't think they are do-gooders. Dissident Mormons have set up communities in Mexico for a long time. By "dissident" I mean polygamist. According to the news story I read, some of its former leaders died violent deaths. These women were in the wrong place at the wrong time, or maybe the murders were to settle a score within the community.

These were not the 1st victims of the cartels although usually women and children are raped but not killed. There's been a long running dispute over land, water rights, and refusal to pay cartel "tariffs."

I'm from Houston, r3, so I read local coverage of some of the murders at the time. The ruthlessness of the blood-atonement murders combined with that name, Ervil LeBaron, made it stick in my memory. I thought there was something legally novel about the federal prosecution here in Houston, like it was the first of a certain type of hate-crime prosecution, but I can't find anything about that right now. I'm sorry about the children, but the adults in this sect are very dubious.

And here's a creepy detail I didn't learn at the time: "Six of the younger children, aged 12–18, were placed in separate foster homes in Utah. Authorities hoped that by separating them and showing them a normal life, the children could be deprogrammed and end the cycle of violence. All of the children disappeared from their foster homes on a single night at the end of September 1989."

NY Times update. Since it's behind a paywall can someone please summarize the details?

At Least 5 Members of Mormon Family Are Killed in Ambush in Mexico

Children were among the victims in a massacre attributed to organized crime. Other children were rescued, some of whom hid along a roadside.

By Azam Ahmed, Elisabeth Malkin and Daniel Victor

MEXICO CITY — At least five members of a prominent Mormon family were killed on Monday when their vehicles were ambushed in northern Mexico by gunmen believed to be members of organized crime, officials said. The attack alarmed the nation even as it has been buffeted by record violence this year.

The LeBarón family, which has been living in the border region for decades, several family members said, were traveling in three separate vehicles when the gunmen attacked. While officials said the toll was at least five, family members said it was higher, with one putting it at nine, including six children.

That relative and other family members said several children were rescued, some having hidden by the roadside to escape the attackers.

Details of the attack remained murky early Tuesday, as state and local authorities struggled to determine the extent of the violence, and how exactly it unfolded.

It was unclear whether the attackers intentionally targeted the family, which has historically spoken out about the criminal groups that plague the northern border states of Sonora and Chihuahua, or whether it was a case of mistaken identity.

Whatever the case, the violence shook Mexicans as grisly details emerged about the attack, which left the bodies of children incinerated.

Julian LeBarón, a cousin of the three women who were driving the vehicles, said in a telephone interview that the women and their children were traveling from the state of Sonora to the state of Chihuahua.

His cousin Rhonita was traveling to Phoenix to pick up her husband, who works in North Dakota and was returning to celebrate the couple’s wedding anniversary. Her car broke down, Mr. LeBarón said, and the gunmen “opened fire on Rhonita and torched her car.”

She was killed, along with an 11-year-old boy, a 9-year-old girl and twins who were less than a year old, he said.

About eight miles ahead, the two other cars were also attacked, killing the two other women, Dawna Langford and Christina Langford, Mr. LeBarón said. Dawna Langford’s 4-year-old boy and a 6-year-old girl were also killed, he said.

“Six little kids were killed, and seven made it out alive,” he said.

The women were traveling along a route they had taken many times before between the two Mormon communities of La Mora in Sonora and Colonia Lebarón in Chihuahua.

The massacre came a decade after two other members of the LeBarón family were kidnapped and murdered after they confronted the drug gangs that exercise de facto control over the empty endless spaces of the borderlands south of Arizona.

Multiple family members posted a video, said to have been taken after the attack, showing a charred vehicle riddled with bullet holes, with smoke still rising from it.

Family members took to social media to implore the governments of Mexico and the United States to do something about the intensifying violence in Mexico, in particular in the areas along the northern border, where Mormons and Mennonites have lived for decades despite the threat from rampant organized crime.

Many took particular aim at President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, whose government has struggled to articulate a coherent security strategy even as homicides mount and organized crime groups have carried out increasingly brazen attacks both against citizens and the state.

In the aftermath of Monday’s attack, the government deployed the newly formed National Guard as well as the military to the area to assist with the search for missing family members believed to have fled when they came under attack.

OP, Maybe the Mormons weren't nosy but just driving desirable SUV's through cartel territory with constant gang warfare, not smart. Now how will there be any retaliation? Wouldn't trust the Mexican LE to take significant action in locating the perps.

Heavy has an article with posts and comments taken from the family's social media accounts. And here's a fun blurb:

[quote]In 2012, Vice reported, “The cartels of Juarez, Mexico, are at war with a group of Mormons, some of whom are related to Mitt Romney. We went there to document the conflict, meet Romney’s Mormon family, and find out more about how US policy is impacting the war on drugs.”

Trump offers help eliminating the cartels including "Zetas" who's responsible for these tragic deaths of young kids. How will the corrupt Mexican government respond?

Linked is Vice' analysis of the history of conflict between the LDS enclave and the drug cartels. Note the latter is flooding the US with fentanyl and has huge meth labs.

[quote]All of the children disappeared from their foster homes on a single night at the end of September 1989

What the fuck.

R14, There was a coordinated "rescue" of all of the children one night by adult men of the polygamist cult.

What the well meaning "normies" didn't realize is that you can't un-brainwash kids that easily nor without extremely intensive counseling, and even then it might not work. I can link a book written by an ex-polygamist who grew up in the sect. She explains the terrible difficulty helping cult throwaways and escapees cope with very basic decision making such as which part of their bedroom to clean first or what clothing to wear. You see even very minor choices are made for them and they're badly beaten if they don't immediately comply with the regimentation.

Furthermore these are kids who've never had any possessions of their own besides socks and underwear and a couple of hand-me-down outfits. They're so poor that food insecurity is a constant worry, forget having more than a couple of handmade toys.

Similar stresses and even mental illness were reported by most of the American parents who adopted Russian children from state-run orphanages if they weren't infants.

It's called "thinning the herd." The slowest ones get picked off first.

Those people were apparently burned alive

Thoughts & Prayers !

And build that wall !

NBC:

At least nine Americans killed in Mexican highway ambush

R18, The problem with the wall is that while it slows down traffic one must not forget the extremely elaborate system of tunnels, most paved and able to accommodate a truck, connecting Mexico with all US border states.

The Hill:

Trump: US ready to help in 'cleaning out' the 'monsters' who killed Americans

Irene Spencer was a polygamous woman who married into the LeBaron family, and she wrote very detiled memoirs of her life there, in Mexico. Her books are available on Amazon, and they are incredible.

Do-gooders? Not hardly. The LeBaron family waxesand wanes in their fanaticism, but normal or do-gooder has never been on their spectrum.

Evil LaBaron's polygamist cult can hardly be considered do -gooders.

They were trafficking drugs from Mexico.

It's sad and they certainly don't deserve what happened, but it was extremely foolish to drive across rural Mexico.

Again, terrible things can happen to people who do stupid things.

Why is there a single shred of sympathy for these idiots? They moved to Mexico because they were running from US law enforcement (the same reason a portion of Mitt Romney's family lives in Mexico). They are and were not angels. It would not surprise me in the slightest to discover that they were running drugs or other contraband in those luxury SUVs, and they were ambushed because of it.

Just wait. Deplorables will take this up as a rallying cry.

[quote]A relative who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals said he had located the burned-out, bullet-ridden SUV containing the remains of his nephew's wife and her four children.

A relative who asked not to be named...his nephew's

Seems like they've pretty much marked him for death.

IMO the Mormon families were doing something to the cartels. I'm sure the cartels gave them warnings but they didn't heed. A real investigation is needed. It's sad it came to this. Some of the Romneys moved to the states and became carpet baggers, Wasn't Mitt's dad govenor of Michigan, Mitt governor of Massachusetts, now junior senator from Utah.

Why were they caravanning around Mexico though?

[quote]Why is there a single shred of sympathy for these idiots? They moved to Mexico because they were running from US law enforcement (the same reason a portion of Mitt Romney's family lives in Mexico). They are and were not angels.

Yes, I’ll bet those two infants were very dastardly. No sympathy for suspicious white babies.

Sounds like the father just wanted to move on.

R31, The LDS polygamist group were going from one settlement to another for a wedding of relatives. They'd made the trip before hand. Unfortunately one of the SUV's had mechanical trouble and had to stop. They were not in motion when the SUV was hit with a high powered weapon from a distance. Engine exploded. At least a 7-month-old baby girl was found alive in the rear compartment of the back seat.

There's a gang warfare going on between 2 different major cartels. Wrong time to travel especially without a well armed escort. There has always been enormous friction between the cartels and the dual citizen LDS.

R31, The LDS polygamist group were going from one settlement to another for a wedding of relatives. They'd made the trip before hand. Unfortunately one of the SUV's had mechanical trouble and had to stop. They were not in motion when the SUV was hit with a high powered weapon from a distance. Engine exploded. At least a 7-month-old baby girl was found alive in the rear compartment of the back seat.

There's a gang warfare going on between 2 different major cartels. Wrong time to travel especially without a well armed escort. There has always been enormous friction between the cartels and the dual citizen LDS.

Only religious freaks would choose to live in cartel land. RIP to the innocent kids.

Of course Mexico's president turned down Trump's offer for military assistance. Likely he gets bribes from the cartels as have previous leaders of Mexico.

However so far over 10,000 Mexicans have been killed this year alone. There's a very valid reason so many are trying to cross the border to safety in the US. Something radical needs to be done in Mexico.

The mainstream LDS church is not claiming these people.

R37, Letting the U.S. military into Mexico is a sure win for the Mexican President.

I read the Mormon ladies put kilos up their snatch and wouldnt “release” them (like golf balls in Priscilla Queen of the Desert) so they killed them all. It’s ok, Other Mormons will breed more followers.

R38, All polygamist LDS sects were totally excommunicated by the mainstream Mormon church in UT including those branches living in Canada.

God these LeBarons are NUTS! The media is going to feel like fools for parroting the "poor innocent mormon family" narrative when the facts come out on this.

These folks sound like the Cliven Bundy types. He's that fundamentalist Mormon who refuses to pay the Bureau of Land Management for grazing his cattle on public land and had a long standoff with the government. They are the law unto themselves except this family took it over the border not anticipating their little slice of self-governing paradise would be over run by cartels. Cliven can fight the US govt and cost tax payers millions of dollars without any repercussions. It sounds like these families were arrogant enough to fight the cartels thinking they're immune somehow?

1) It is EXTREMELY Disturbing in a couple of those photos how completely emaciated the blond woman/ mother is right after giving birth, while the husband/father type is your stereo-typical Grizzly-Adams type. WTF?

2) Watch Trump turn this into a a Military Venture U.S. Troops to- the-Rescue shit that he can exploit for his benefit towards the election. Asshole.

Some of the Moms and kids were natural blondes, which is what makes it all doubly tragic.

I hate when blonde people die.

Since it’s their choice to live in Mexican drug states, it’s their choice to die there too

Inevitable and horrible.

Is there a GoFundMe yet ?

For their assassins, R49?

MSNBC or CNN are not reporting this story correctly...who will?

Trump said they were a fine family and acted like he knew them. I think the cartel war was part of their doing. Mormons often treat their women worse than they treat their animals.

I meant to say that there were good people on both sides!

I didn’t see one woman in that Vice video.

Now that I think of it, isn't it odd that there were only women and children in the vehicles? Weird enough that they're driving through disputed cartel territory, but without any adult males.

Even the deplorables are not going to care about these weirdo polygamists.

R55, Did you forget about the young man in the SUV caravan who ran for medical help after helping to hide the wounded in the bushes?

[quote]Yes, I’ll bet those two infants were very dastardly. No sympathy for suspicious white babies.

WTF does the fact that the infants were white have to do with anything? Why inject racism into this?

I didn't put those babies in that SUV and send them on a trek across cartel country, R32, their parents did. The parents knew the risks. The parents have poor judgment to begin with... I mean, come on, they're Mormons running from US law enforcement! And we're supposed to feel sorry for them?

[quote] Some of the Romneys moved to the states and became carpet baggers, Wasn't Mitt's dad govenor of Michigan, Mitt governor of Massachusetts, now junior senator from Utah.

The Romneys (Mitt's grandfather and clan) moved to Mexico because they were polygamists fleeing US law enforcement. In the grand tradition of the Romney family, Mitt's father did indeed move back to the US, became a successful businessman and governor of Michigan. Mitt continued the carpetbagging by moving to Massachusetts, founding Bain Capital (you remember them, the people who wreck companies, steal pensions, run up massive debt and then dump the entire mess on the US government at rapacious profit) and becoming Massachusetts governor, where he conceived of and enacted Obamacare before Obama was even a Senator. Then the Democrats decided it was a workable plan, so multiple choice Mitt then came out against his own plan. He's a Republican, through and through.

Read the following comment on the internet and don't know if it has any element of truth. Seeking DL opinions.

I am skeptical of the story line with the recent cartel killings in Mexico The story line is that a bunch of women and children were going to a wedding and got killed on the way there by a drug cartel, and there's nothing more to the story at all.

First of all the cartels are not stupid. If they attacked in this manner it is because they've got more than one cell phone bugged with a tracker, and they only do that for their enemies. This story is not as simple as stated. The vehicles were burned rather than taken which means it really was a cartel and not thugs. Cartels don't do crap like this unless it is against a competitor.

There's a back story. . . The husbands or any men associated with the women and children killed were doing deals of which their wives were clueless. To send a message the cartels took what they could get. If that happened to be women and children and burned out cars then it was only because that's ALL THEY COULD DO. The cartels did this via tracking bugs. There are LOTS of whites in Mexico, and lots of vehicles with American plates in Mexico, so why was it this group that got taken out?

Answer: Because their cell phones had a tracking bug which was put there for a reason. No other way. Cartels don't bother murdering ordinary people. Or everyone would have been taken alive and handed back for a huge ransom with the SUV's re-sold.

GUARANTEE: The group was "women and children only" because the older men knew it was best to not go along, and doubted the cartels would get this nasty and violent.

R59 - that is chilling, but entirely believable. I don’t doubt for a minute that these Mormons were involved with criminal activity. Feel bad the poor kids got caught in the crossfire.

Vice is utter trash and has zero journalistic standards. They make the Daily Mail look like The New York Times.

R60, Read the following for more interesting "coincidences," Women-Killed-in-Mexican-cartel-murders-had-alleged-ties-to-sex-cult-NXVIM

Yikes. Here's another piece on connections between NXVIM and the LeBarons.

More media beginning to pick up on the cult/murder aspect of the story.

R64, Your NBC linked article claims that there are over 1,000,000 FLDS members living in Mexico.

Other online reports link FLDS to Epstein and to child trafficking. Reading books by ex-cult members explain how children are sometimes given to adult Mexicans in exchange for political and financial favors. Long ago the Mexican government agreed "to look the other way" re the American immigrants as polygamy is illegal in Mexico.

What a tangled web...

R65 that's pretty sick shit. I hope the media can blow the lid off this (optimistic) or at least stop treating the deceased as "just poor innocent travelers killed by the evil cartels," I think we all know the chances of them being involved in illegal acts is 'very likely. ' Good people don't move to Mexico to skirt US polygamy laws.

I know it's not funny but it reminds me of The Book of Mormon when the character played by Andrew Rannells goes to do good with that war lord.

[quote]Did you forget about the young man in the SUV caravan who ran for medical help after helping to hide the wounded in the bushes?

Wasn't this a 13 year old boy?

Updated info from Mexican authorities re the killers. Note the link between not only drug sales but human trafficking.

Geez this story is getting weird. Now Epstein? Doesn’t surprise me there are NXIVM links to these people. NXIVM seems to function like an FLDS polygamous marriage.

On a more trivial note: I was surprised by the photo of the blonde woman in the strapless dress. I expect FLDS ladies to dress more demurely. Perhaps that's just the Warren Jeffs crowd.

I just read (or read and tried to follow) the story of the LeBaron family. It's a sordid mess. Murder, mind control, sons killing their mothers, mothers killing their sons, husbands killing everybody. Hate to say it but I will: ya reap what ya sow, folks. I mean, live in the Mexican desert descended from monsters? What do you expect?

R72. Wonder if that's her wedding dress. Agree she's the 1st FLDS woman I've ever read about who'd pose with bare arms let alone bare shoulders. Even in extreme heat and humidity little girls aren't allowed to show their knees nor forearms. Even long shorts are out of the question for hiking.

One of the books I've read about the FLDS claims girls from families who are on the outs with the inner circle have been sold into prostitution rings. Think about it. Most families live in the barest of essentials with the excuse that worldly possessions are not important, and that all women need to be very thin.

A life of deprivation does't allow the mind to fantasize, or creativity and any freedom of thought all of which is beaten out of FLDS kids from the youngest ages.

R72, Don't know if it's changed since the time of her childhood but more than one little FLDS-raised girl spoke of always drinking unfiltered water with only occasional sponge baths. The concept of completely undressing for daily baths or showers and using soap everyplace is foreign except on one's wedding day.

Yes skin rashes and constant stomach problems from bad water are the norm. Don't think all FLDS have adequate indoor plumbing, especially if they're not in the inner circle of authority. Personal space and privacy don't exist. Maybe it's a good thing that they're always completely covered.

[quote]Agree she's the 1st FLDS woman I've ever read about who'd pose with bare arms let alone bare shoulders.

They’re not FLDS. The LeBarons are just one of many discrete groups that broke away to practice polygamy. LeBaron = the Church of the Firstborn. The whole fundamentalist movement a huge clusterfuck of offshoots, power struggles, and feuding families; what they all have in common is polygamy.

One unique thing about the LeBarons is that people are in and out. People leave (and sometimes go back and then leave again) and although they’re considered apostatethey aren’t completely cut off from family members who are still in. I don’t know if that’s by design or if the overlords are just asleep at the wheel. Some women have even been allowed to be baptized in the church, but it requires a series of interviews at the Quorum of the Twelve level and a signed contract denouncing polygamy and promising to never practice it again.

Apostolic United Brethren is another fundamentalist breakaway group. While the name may not be familiar, anyone who has watched Sister Wives has seen them in action.

FLDS is the largest and most easily identified of the breakaways, but their style of dress is their own.

In case anyone is wondering how to get FLDS hair...

That was the wrong video. This is the one with the face shapes.

Let the enunciation and cult-voice lull you into a fitful slumber.

R77, Whoa, so awesomely Stepford Wives.

Back to the Le Barons, the LA Times article from 1992 mentions, specifically, the Le Baron involvement in drug trafficking. There's more to this than being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Are the three women killed sister wives?

[quote]Some of the Moms and kids were natural blondes, which is what makes it all doubly tragic.

Some would say they were offensively blonde!

This family has 90 policemen protect them at all hours since 2011!

The LeBaron family had a history of conflict with Mexican drug cartels, which indicates that they may have been targeted, former Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda told CNN on Tuesday evening.

"Cartels have taken too many of our family members," said family member Kendra Lee Miller, adding those killed Monday were "not the first."

Miller told CNN her family has recently been threatened by cartels over where it can travel.

"They had stood up to the drug cartels and they did have certain frictions either with the cartels or with neighboring communities over water rights," Castañeda said.

Castañeda was Mexico's foreign minister for three years and left office in early 2003.

"Their long-standing tensions, and apparently the woman who was driving in the first car that was attacked was an activist. She was someone who was very active in her community, defending her family, her fellow members of the community against cartels, on the issue of water rights," Castañeda said, describing one of the three women killed, without naming her.

The former minister also said the larger LeBaron community had been receiving the protection of 90 federal police stationed around the community since 2011 because of tensions between the family and cartels.

That protection was withdrawn to some extent by the current government earlier this year, according to Castañeda. It's unclear whether all 90 policemen were withdrawn or just some of them, he added.

Their god really looked after them

[quote]Yes, I’ll bet those two infants were very dastardly. No sympathy for suspicious white babies.

Evil Spawn. So no, no sympathy. They would have grown up to do just the same as their parents.

Good thing karma is bullshit.

Why didnt they just move.

Mexican criminals are hardcore. Terrible place.

[quote]Why didnt they just move?

Mormon pussy.

This deserves ripped-from-the-headlines treatment, but I don't think SVU is up to the task.

A suspect has been arrested in the massacre of nine family members from a Mormon community on the Mexican side of the border with the United States, Mexican authorities said Tuesday.

The Ministerial Agency for Criminal Investigations (AMIC) said it has detained an individual who was holding two bound and gagged hostages in the hills of Agua Prieta in the state of Sonora.

The suspect had several rifles and a large amount of ammunition, including a number of large-caliber weapons, the agency said in a statement posted to its official Facebook page.

The arrest comes just a day after women and children were brutally attacked by criminal groups while driving near the US-Mexico border, Mexican authorities said. The victims appear to be a fundamentalist sect separate from the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Three women, four small children and two infants — all dual US-Mexican citizens — were killed in their vehicles Monday, according to family member Alex LeBaron. The victims and eight surviving children were ambushed by criminal groups Monday evening while traveling between the states of Sonora and Chihuahua, Mexican authorities said.

The Attorney-General for the neighboring state of Chihuahua, Cesar Peniche Espejel, confirmed the arrest in an interview with Mexico’s Imagen Radio on Tuesday, but could not confirm details of the suspect’s involvement. “We are waiting for some more intelligence in order to issue an official statement,” he said.

Peniche Espejel said he believes the newly-formed “Los Jaguares” cartel, an off-shoot of the Sinaloa cartel, may be behind the massacre. But earlier Tuesday, a US official said a rival cartel called La Línea is under focus.

“These very cartels of Sinaloa, after the arrest of Guzman ‘El Chapo’ have suffered fragmentations,” Peniche Espejel said. “They have been growing near the border with the United States and are heavily involved in trafficking of immigrants into the United States and drug-trafficking.”

The family may have been targeted

The LeBaron family had a history of conflict with Mexican drug cartels, which indicates that they may have been targeted, former Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda told CNN on Tuesday evening.

“Cartels have taken too many of our family members,” said family member Kendra Lee Miller, adding those killed Monday were “not the first.” Miller told CNN her family has recently been threatened by cartels over where it can travel.

“They had stood up to the drug cartels and they did have certain frictions either with the cartels or with neighboring communities over water rights,” Castañeda said. Castañeda was Mexico’s foreign minister for three years and left office in early 2003.

“Their long-standing tensions, and apparently the woman who was driving in the first car that was attacked was an activist. She was someone who was very active in her community, defending her family, her fellow members of the community against cartels, on the issue of water rights,” Castañeda said, describing one of the three women killed, without naming her.

The former minister also said the larger LeBaron community had been receiving the protection of 90 federal police stationed around the community since 2011 because of tensions between the family and cartels.

That protection was withdrawn to some extent by the current government earlier this year, according to Castañeda. It’s unclear whether all 90 policemen were withdrawn or just some of them, he added.

In a news conference earlier Tuesday, Mexican Security Minister Alfonso Durazo said the attack may have been a case of mistaken identity of “conflicting groups in the area.”

But Castañeda told CNN that he finds that theory unlikely, especially as two cars in two different locations carrying members of the same family were attacked in the same manner.

There's more to the Mercury News story at the link at r89.

Reported that there are ties to the NXIVM sex cult. See the Sun and Daily Mail

Suspects arrested with 2 bound and gagged hostages as evidence. Details at link.

R92, From your link,

In this climate of fear it has been alleged the NXIVM sex cult leader Keith Raniere recruited Mormon women under the promise he could save them from the horrific violence unfolding around them.

Under the guise of a self-help group, Raniere allegedly tricked women into moving into his New York compound, where they were promised jobs as nannies. But the woman were turned into his sex slaves through such means as shame, punishment and nude blackmail photos. Some were even forced to have his initials branded on their bodies. The 58-year-old was arrested in Mexico in 2018, convicted of sex trafficking and faces life in prison when he is sentenced in the New Year.

'MORMON MANSON' The group were also previously linked to Ervil LeBaron, known as the “Mormon Manson”, who led a murderous polygamous cult called the Church of the Lamb of God. The group were responsible for the killing of at least 25 people. It was disbanded in the early 1980s and Ervil died in prison soon after while serving a life sentence for murder.

One of his 51 children, Anna LeBaron, detailed the reality of the sect in a 2017 book, "The Polygamist's Daughter". Anna said: "My father would order mob-style hits and those would be carried out by his cult members if they stopped believing in him or his practice or religion and left, or sometimes it was rival cult leaders that were blood-atoned for being false prophets.”

Just like followers of notorious cult monster Charles Manson, Anna says her father’s children truly believed everything he told them. “As a child we were taught that we were celestial children because we were born of the prophet Ervil LeBaron,” Anna recalls.

Following his death, six family members masterminded the notorious "four o'clock" murders. This saw an eight-year-old child and three former members shot dead within minutes of each other in Texas in 1988.

R92, From your post re the Daily Mail,

XIVM sex cult leader Keith Raniere 'recruited from same Mormon community slaughtered by cartel gunmen in Mexico'

Nine members of the LeBaron family were killed by cartel gunmen on Monday Police confirmed they have arrested a suspected drug lord after the killings It has since emerged the Mormon stronghold was also a recruitment target for NXIVM sex cult leader Keith Raniere

Raniere, convicted of sex trafficking, is said to have told Mormon women living close in the Mexican border he could lead them safety, away from drug violence

Filmmaker said a documentary he made with Raniere became a recruiting tool for NXIVM

Julian LeBaron, whose relatives died Monday, featured in the documentary 'I never agreed for the film to be used as a recruiting tool of any kind', he said

Interesting comment on the internet, T or F?

There's more to this story than meets the eye. Lebaron girls were involved in NXIVM. The Lebaron clan was steeling water from the local peasants. They had their own little wealthy community and were building illegal wells and taking water from the locals. Local Mexican peasants do not see the Lebaron family as the good guys. This is the message: all you wealthy gringos who don't belong here, either help the locals and share like your good book says, or get the f out.

Linked article has more details. Apparently the women and children weren't travelling to a wedding.

Comment on the internet, T or F?

Cartels knew they were fucked on this one. So they had some low level guy watch a couple of hostages, threw in a couple of black assault rifles for good measure, and then told the Federales where to find him. This keeps the US military at bay, makes the Fedarales look good, and takes a little heat off of the Cartels. Same mentality when they tell customs where & when a load of coke is coming in, so they can get 10 more loads through at another location.

If you choose to settle in one of the world's most dangerous regions just so you can have multiple wives, you have to accept the consequences. That said, I have no idea whether the women were there by choice. Obviously the kids knew no other life.

Is Sonora by Romney territory? The Romney men were notorious thugs and boy pickers. If you were an attractive young man, they Romney men would kidnap you on plain daylight and returned you at night made a "señorita."

Romney rivals were often emasculated that way...

[quote]If you choose to settle in one of the world's most dangerous regions just so you can have multiple wives, you have to accept the consequences.

You have to understand the Southwest culture. The Mormon and Mennonites have been settling in Northern Mexico since the 1800s/early-1900s. It's common to see them commute between Mexico and the US. Back and forth. Back and forth.

What better could have happened? They did us all a favor.

R100, Details and links please.

We don't house, feed, and care for law-abiding, hard-working citizens or protect their rights. However, we go crazy over a cult of family-murderers and country-hopping, dual-citizen, fake-religion worshippers who flaunt their wealth in a poor place and expect to come and go as they please? Please! There are lots of rumors about this cult, some regarding pay-offs to the cartels, even using children as currency, to insure their safety over the years. This is nothing but anti-Mexican fear-baiting by idiots.

Without a doubt thee Mormons were drug running and violated some rule that the Cartel has and just like anyone else who messes with these cartels, they got executed. This is normal for Mexico.

R104, Tragedy is the innocent babies and young children murdered because of their parents' and the cult's bad decisions.

R104, Cult was also clearly guilty of human trafficking and child prostitution of local Mexicans as well as their own flesh and blood. Included was the bait and switch promise of safe, legitimate jobs as nannies and maids through NXVIM. Wonder exactly what the connection to Epstein entailed?

Documentary film and especially the comments attached explore extreme violence in Mexico, efforts to combat it, and the NXVIM connection.

New president of Mexico cancelled the 90+ federales protecting the off-shoot LDS cult as well as those for the Mennonite community. Not enough protection money paid?

Truth, 13 multi-billionaire families rule Mexico. The country needs to get rid of the cartels.

From the internet,

The minicipality of Galeana, the Lebaron family is know as "the Galeana Cartel and they are hated by many.

They are US citizens who have both the protection of the US feds, and the Mexican feds. The family has dedicated many decades to drug trafficking, a fact well-known to the residents of Buenaventura and Galeana.

Under both US and Mexican federal protection, this family has committed a significant number of abuses against people in the area, including land theft, illegal commandeering of aquifer wells affecting hundreds of farmers, and more. Very bad juju. The list of potential suspects in yesterday's will be very long.

Certainly, the fact that all three women were leaving town with their children cannot be insignificant.

Where the hell did they get all that money for their nice buildings, farm equipment, houses, trucks, etc. Selling dried chiles was not the source for that kind of wealth. The LeBarón are owners of thousands of hectares of a desert area that includes territories of the municipalities of Villa Ahumada, Buenaventura and Flores Magón, where they have allegedly drilled more than 2,000 illegal wells.

That and other abuses have been so bad, in fact, that locals have been protesting the LeBarons, and finally formed a citizens' group, El Barzon, to try and gather enough political pressure to force the government to start prosecuting the cult's crimes.

The LeBarons have threatened to behead the activists and reporters who have been trying to bring this issue to the public's attention.

A helluva lot of Mormons have killed each other in Utah than in Mexico.

Probably around 1k people living in the direct area of LeBaron with around 3k within a 30 mile radius total (according to Mexican Census data

I'd love to see the idiot in chief try any kind of "punishment" tactics on the drug cartels. They're ruthless, vicious, and quite thorough. The heads of his dumbfuck sons and Ivanka and Tiffany will be shipped to him in packages before he even realizes they're missing. And another thought occurs: Who do I root for if this situation comes to pass? Well, I've already made up my mind on that score, lol.

LeBaron's shot at a group of locals who demanded an end to the cult's theft of water et al.

Knew there was much more to this story than MSM reported.

Internet comment,

Mexican man arrested for the cult deaths is the fall guy for the cartel because the US was about to lay an ass whooping on them. His family received lots of drug money in exchange for him taking the fall. There is a reason they are called "gangs"

So his gang puts him on guard duty in a disputed territory all alone? And then he takes on an entire convoy of a rival gang also alone? Where were his homies and reinforcements?

These guys are ex soldiers and know how to attack convoys and its never using just 1 man. Who is this guy-Rambo?

Basically it happened like this. The Mexican president called his buddy who runs this specific cartel and said "America is pissed and they demand justice" This is what we get. One patsy

US State Department's reply: Oh, OK, never mind.

R113, Re that comment, Heavily armed man not related to cult murders.

CDAN is always making dumb human trafficking-church posts. But maybe there is something to some of them. This story came out today. Just to be clear, I think CDAN is mostly fantasy bullshit. I was just surprised by this story.

Linked source is an expert on all matters cartel related. Interesting take on what went down.

Those LeBarons are a nasty breed. The men marry each other’s uneducated daughters, then turn them and their litters of children into slaves. The women do all the work. That’s what happened here.

I read an article last night on twitter - I think the writer was WaPo - who reported in this & the LeBarons. In one of his tweets ge casually mentioned the LeBaron community no longer practices polygamy & some of its members are catholic.

Someone asked wtf are they still in Mexico if they’re no longer polygamist? They all have dual US/Mexican citizenship, they all speak English, they all travel to visit relatives back & forth across the border. Why would you keep your family in constant danger of being killed by cartels (2 had been killed previous to this), have bunker boxes all around the compound to watch the roads at night when they could easily move to a gated community in the US? The onLy reason they were in Mexico was polygamy. No polygamy, no need to live like hunted rabbits. So why are they still there?

Because they’re still polygamous, that’s why. No women were seen in that Vice documentary, no women are being interviewed in-depth. I’m betting it’s the men, not the women, who travel back and forth across the border visiting relatives (and bringing young wives back with them).

[italic]This is a longish article, so I'm only posting the opening paragraphs.[/italic]

How Mexico’s cartel wars shattered American Mormons’ peaceful, but wary, existence

LA MORA, Mexico - For decades, this small village of American Mormons in the mountains of northwestern Mexico coexisted peacefully with the region’s most powerful drug cartel.

The Americans rolled down their windows at the cartel’s checkpoints. They nodded to the sicarios at local horse races and shared pomegranates during the harvest. When the cartel vehicles needed repair, La Mora’s American mechanic fixed them for the same fee he charged his neighbors.

Until this week, living as an American in one of Mexico's most dangerous valleys meant maintaining an uneasy truce with the traffickers: "Basically, it was 'We won't bother you if you don't bother us,' " said Adam Langford, whose great-grandfather was one of the first American Mormons to move to Mexico in 1880.

Then, on Monday, it became clear that no agreement could insulate La Mora from Mexico’s rising violence. That morning, gunmen stopped three vehicles on a dirt road outside of town, killing three women and six children, shooting babies at close range and targeting a mother as she begged for her children’s lives.

The Mexican government has suggested that the vehicles were attacked by mistake. But here in La Mora, that explanation makes little sense.

R119, This article from your link describes the injuries of the surviving children as well as the courage of the 13-year-old boy who walked miles to get help. It also reveals the newer cartel's intrusion on the Mexican territory which likely caused the violence.

R120, Here's the link.

The LeBaron cult is creepy as fuck and Warren Jeffs sought refuge while on the run at one of their camps. Warren Jeffs is a perverted, kiddie fucker with a god complex. Seriously deranged.

The Trumpturds are of course using this incident as an excuse to go after "illegals" and to punish Mexico even though this creepy ass cult may have been up to no good.

Not my will oh Lord, but thine be done. I guess G*d was doing some housecleaning down in Mexico.

Kids always get killed in a war.

I imagine this cult is growing and selling pot...cartels don't like that.

The NY Times piece notes that there is an unguarded dirt road that heads directly to the border from their land. If he family is in the drug business, they could've been operating undetected to U.S. authorities for years, but not the area cartel who wants that road, too.

[quote] Until this week, living as an American in one of Mexico's most dangerous valleys meant maintaining an uneasy truce with the traffickers: "Basically, it was 'We won't bother you if you don't bother us,' " said Adam Langford, whose great-grandfather was one of the first American Mormons to move to Mexico in 1880.

Bullshit. The cartel executed 2 men from the compound a few years ago.

Exactly, R127. WTF did that "truce" involve and what were the Mormom men willing to give up?

What school did all the kids in these communities go to? Did they go to the Mexican schools? Or are they all homeschooled? And did these kids marry people in the Mexican community after settling there for over150 years? How is the community all still white after 150 years in Mexico?

R129, LDS offshoot cults a;; have their own schools with basic education through the primary grades as well as a lot of religious doctrine. Of course US history and anything to do with the US government aren't taught. In Mexico at least they're learn Spanish.

Some girls from mothers who are out of favor are essentially given to Mexican authority figures or to very old men in positions of power. A few boys who aren't thrown out of the cult as they're seen as competition do marry Mexican girls if they accept the cult's beliefs including polygamy.

These particular families had ties to the U.S. One woman’s husband had got a job in North Dakota some time ago, and she was immediately moving there. The family is portraying this as, she just missed her husband, but somehow I wonder if they were afraid there. One wife was a local activist, which means she had a target on her back. Another was “going to visit family in the U.S.“ Only one was going to a wedding in Mexico.

My guess is, in real life, somehow they got a heads up and were leaving. Which means they are afraid to admit they were leaving. I think the Mexicans probably want their land and are trying to push them out.

I think it was a massacre over pot and over water. A field has to be watered. If you ever watched Big Love you know that Mormons are willing and able to break the laws.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

They’re not official members of the Mormon religion. Some belong to a polygamous offshoot. I read that some of them just call themselves “Mormons” but don’t follow a religion. It probably just means they are related to the Mormon clans there.

Does AAA cover Mexico?

It’s over water. They can afford to hire drills to go down deep for water and are tapping more and more aquifers for their wells. Local farmers and pot growers are not happy.

Victims reportedly shot at "point blank" range.

Wow, imagine being a newly appointed soldier in the org or did older seasoned killers do this?

The local cartel must have really hated the LeBarons to kill two infants with shots to the head.

[quote] get themselves and kids killed in Cartel territory?

All Mexico is cartel territory, and areas north of the border.

I happened to be on vacation in Mexico last week. Nowhere near this spot. But the next day lots of military and more police were on the streets as a show of force.

The State Dept has had travel advisories posted about Mexico for years and upgraded the risk level April 2019. I have no sympathy for people who ignore warnings.

Travel warnings for Mexico are very state specific. Parts of Mexico are safer than most major US cities. Other parts should be avoided at all costs.

I went to Tijuana for the first time in 2016 and I liked it. I felt safe enough there (I wasn't clubbing or looking for drugs though). I had been to Mexico before, but not TJ. I never felt less safe than I did in US cities.

I was in San Diego this summer and thought "why not go back to Tijuana for a day while you're here?" Most of my Lyft drivers were against the idea, half of them either from Mexico or were of Mexican descent. I was a little baffled but after some Googling back at the hotel, I saw some reports now calling TJ the murder capital of the world. Has it changed a lot in so few years?

Do us a favor and kill 'em all,

This is horrible. I am no fan of the cult of Mormon but nobody deserves this.

R141 I have friends who are Mexican and they have US Citizenship as well, and they just travel to Mexico City DF, and to the towns, cities, or villages in the state where they are from to visit family.

R27 when I first heard the news I assumed they were smuggling drugs, but I am not sure if they were or not? What exactly have these Mormons done in Mexico? I just know about the ones in Utah and how their cult is extremely wealthy.

The Mormons are stupid abrasive criminals n the area. 'They challenged the Cartel and the stupid women who believed their husbands got themselves and boychick attempts to kill them all. It is known to Cartels that Mormons do not value females, so they actually laid a small to waste, as Mormon men can just get on and get another "family" for needs, etc. Of course, their "needs" will be met unashamed.

The Mormons were stealing water. They were living in prosperous, landscaped, gated communities in the Chihuahuan desert. They were local politicians who fiddled the water rights and paid bribes right and left. No one likes a smarty pants. Especially when you have no water.

[quote] Cartels that Mormons do not value females, so they actually laid a small to waste, as Mormon men can just get on and get another "family" for needs, etc. Of course, their "needs" will be met unashamed.

There's a lot of truth to this. I watched the Langford child on Good Morning America. His mother did die trying to protect her children, which at 44 she had delivered 13 making her husband a potential planetary star with his large, roomy planet that can probably accommodate his new siblings. YEP. Daddy's gonna get a new wife and make some batter cookin'

Horrific people.

Women are just brood mares to fundamentalist Mormons of course. Girls are expected to produce as many babies as possible, the catch is, there can't be too many males or else they lose their "value" and become a burden in a polygamist clan. If there's too many boys, ones of less value/importance (eg, third born son of a less favored or lower ranking wife) are kicked out of the clan by age 12/13. There was a whole documentary about homeless Mormon teens, all of whom were kicked out of their homes because there was a surplus of males. No one cares about them or about the girls, it's a cult where only the dominant/important men matter, and sometimes their first/most favored wives.