ALBANY – The nine U.S. citizens slaughtered in an ambush Monday were from a Mormon community in northern Mexico where NXIVM recruited teenagers for a “girls school” to live in the Capital Region under the care of a high-ranking “slave” for Keith Raniere.

The Mormon community’s ties to the disgraced NXIVM leader’s cult-like organization were revealed in May during the testimony of NXIVM defector Mark Vicente, a filmmaker based in Los Angeles who once lived in Knox Woods, the same Halfmoon townhouse complex as Raniere.

The nine women and children killed — including eight-month-old twins — were traveling in a mountainous area where the notorious Sinaloa drug cartel has been waging a turf war. The victims were related to the extended LeBaron family community in the state of Chihuahua.

Vicente’s testimony in May helped lead to the conviction of Raniere, 59, formerly of Halfmoon, on all charges of sex trafficking, forced labor and racketeering in his trial in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn. Raniere, known within NXIVM as “Vanguard,” faces the possibility of life in prison at his sentencing on Jan. 17 by Senior U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis.

According to Moira Kim Penza, the lead federal prosecutor at Raniere’s trial, Raniere created a “girls school” for Mexican teenagers, many of whom were recruited from within the LeBaron community to live in the Albany area under the care of a “first-line slave” for Raniere.

Vicente’s testimony in May helped lead to the conviction of Raniere, 59, formerly of Halfmoon, on all charges of sex trafficking, forced labor and racketeering in his trial in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn. Raniere, known within NXIVM as “Vanguard,” faces the possibility of life in prison at his sentencing on Jan. 17 by Senior U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis.

According to Moira Kim Penza, the lead federal prosecutor at Raniere’s trial, Raniere created a “girls school” for Mexican teenagers, many of whom were recruited from within the LeBaron community to live in the Albany area under the care of a “first-line slave” for Raniere.

Raniere secretly operated a”master/slave” group known as DOS or “Dominus Obsequious Sororium,”