Megachurch leader and his mother indicted on sex trafficking and racketeering charges

Six leaders of the Mexico-based La Luz del Mundo megachurch — including its current “apostle,” Naasón Joaquín García, his mother and four associates — are facing federal charges of racketeering, child pornography and sex trafficking, under a recently unsealed indictment. Maximum penalties for some of the offenses include life in prison.

García, 56, has been serving a 16-year, 8-month prison sentence in California, after reaching a plea deal in 2022 on state sex abuse charges.

García was moved into federal custody on Wednesday, authorities said as the indictment was unsealed. On the same day, his mother, 79-year-old Eva García de Joaquín, was arrested in Los Angeles. His attorney says that García is innocent.

“We categorically deny these charges,” García’s defense attorney Alan Jackson said in a statement to NPR. “We reject the grotesque portrait painted by the government and its allies.”

Survivors hail ‘a good day’ 

Prosecutors claim the family that has led La Luz del Mundo — or “Light of the World” — for nearly 100 years also used it to facilitate sexual abuse across successive generations. The indictment alleges that García, his late father, Samuel Joaquín Flores, and grandfather Aarón Joaquin Gonzalez, who founded the church, systematically abused their followers, aided by relatives and employees.

“On at least one occasion, [Samuel’s wife Eva García de Joaquín] held down a minor victim so that Samuel could rape the victim,” the indictment alleges.

In many cases, girls and women abused by one leader remained in the church and became the mothers of the next leader’s victims, prosecutors claim.

“So many survivors have been speaking up now” from Mexico and the U.S., Sochil Martin, 39, a former church member who has cooperated with authorities investigating García, tells NPR.

Martin says the church’s elite oversaw generations of abuse, noting that her aunt, who is now in her 60s, says she was assaulted by Samuel and his wife when she was a teenager. Now the apostles’ victims are welcoming news of the federal charges, she says.

“It was a good day for her,” Martin says of her aunt’s reaction. “Even though Samuel left this world and didn’t pay his debt to society and to the kids that he abused, at least his wife is now living to see that day. And that’s a form of justice for a lot of survivors.”

Court documents lay out depraved crimes 

In federal court filings, prosecutors claim García engaged in depraved and unspeakable acts against minor boys and girls and women, including rape, forced incest and what are described as “sadistic sexual rituals for his sexual gratification.”

Arguing against bail for those in custody, prosecutors said in a memo that García, widely called Naasón, and others “victimized at least dozens of minor and adult LLDM Church members in Mexico, the United States, and elsewhere.” Some victims were as young as 13, the document stated. It added that the leaders trafficked victims on international trips to Asia, Europe, Africa, Mexico, and the U.S. — and used the victims to help smuggle money.

Along with García and his mother, the indictment lists four other defendants:

• Joram Núñez Joaquín, 37, a relative and law school graduate. He’s accused of posing as a practicing lawyer, silencing victims and witnesses, and destroying evidence;
• Silem García Peña, 43, who led the church’s public relations arm and allegedly worked to prevent victims from reporting abuse;
• Rosa Sosa, 59, and Azalia Rangel García, 46, both accused of “grooming” victims and abusing minors and young women.

Núñez Joaquín was arrested on Wednesday outside Chicago; the other three defendants are believed to be at large in Mexico.

Jackson, the defense attorney, says the allegations against García are unfounded and part of a “reckless campaign of government overreach.” He says the charges stem from disgruntled former congregation members, and predicts that they will be disproven in court.

Search turns up a safe hidden under a trap door

Law enforcement officers searching the family’s two adjoining homes in East Los Angeles found more than $1 million in cash, along with “numerous gold coins, pure gold and platinum pieces, luxury watches, and jewelry,” prosecutors said in the detention memo.

A trapdoor was discovered under a bed in García’s mother’s house, revealing stairs leading to an underground compartment holding a built-in safe, according to the memo. Inside, officers found stacks of cash totaling around $220,000, jewelry, a jade-wrapped USB drive and gold coins.

The family has “access to vast internationally accessible wealth,” the prosecutors said as they argued for continued detention. They also noted that one defendant, Rangel García, has been at large and is believed to be in Mexico since being named in California state charges in 2019.

The indictment seeks the forfeit of multiple properties, including three homes in Los Angeles and a rural home in San Bernardino County, Calif.

Church leaders have ‘extreme’ power, filmmaker says

The nondenominational Christian church, and Martin and other accusers’ claims against it, were featured in a 2022 HBO documentary, Unveiled: Surviving La Luz del Mundo, which depicted the apostle who leads the church as having complete control over its members.

“The power that they wield is extreme,” Unveiled director Jennifer Tiexiera told NPR’s Here & Now in 2022. “The members believe that that’s the direct connection to God himself.”

Followers who speak out against the apostle or the church are ostracized and threatened with violence, according to Martin.

“It is the mafia. That’s what it is,” she says. “And it’s disguised as a church.”

Among rank-and-file members of the church, Tiexiera has said she’s met many people who are intent on religious service: “It’s not the membership that’s wholly corrupt,” she told The Los Angeles Times. “It’s the hierarchy. And that breaks my heart.”

Church claims to have millions of followers 

Prosecutors accuse García and his five co-defendants of producing child pornography and benefiting from forced labor – and sustaining their activities through illegal financial operations and obstructions of justice.

“They exploited the faith of their followers to prey upon them,” U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said as the charges were announced. “When they were confronted, they leveraged their religious influence and financial power to intimidate and coerce victims into remaining silent about the abuse they had suffered.”

The federal charges follow years of investigation and help from dozens of victims — a process that is continuing, according to Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Ricky J. Patel.

“I thank the brave survivors who provided law enforcement with vital information related to these allegations,” he said, “and I encourage others with helpful information to do the same.”

The case in New York’s Southern District is assigned to District Judge Loretta Preska, who has also handled sex-trafficking proceedings related to the late Jeffrey Epstein and his partner, Ghislaine Maxwell.

La Luz del Mundo is based in Guadalajara, Mexico, but it has substantial operations and holdings in the U.S., including a large church and residences in Los Angeles. Other churches and properties listed in court filings are in New York, Nevada, Texas, Georgia, Indiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, New Jersey and Washington, D.C.

The church currently claims more than 6 million followers and operates in more than 60 countries, according to a recent story by El Occidental, a newspaper in Guadalajara. In their indictment, U.S. prosecutors said that reliable membership numbers were not available.