A Manhattan federal indictment unsealed this week alleges that Naasón Joaquín García, the 56-year-old leader of the Mexico-based megachurch La Luz del Mundo, and five top aides ran an international sex-abuse ring that forced children and adults into sexual acts — including incest — and used masks to prevent victims from recognizing relatives, federal prosecutors said.
The indictment, filed earlier this month and unsealed Wednesday in federal court in Manhattan, charges García and five lieutenants with sex trafficking, child pornography and racketeering. García was transferred to federal custody the same day the indictment was unsealed; authorities also took his 79-year-old mother, Eva García de Joaquín, into custody in Los Angeles.
Federal prosecutors said the indictment details a pattern in which García and co-defendants coerced congregants into sexual abuse under the guise of religious service and threats of eternal damnation for resistance. Prosecutors allege some victims were forced to engage in sexual acts in front of García while wearing masks so they would not recognize family members, and that church leaders transported victims across borders to locations including New York, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, Poland and South Africa, where García allegedly abused them.
The indictment echoes prior accusations against García, who is already serving a 16-year, eight-month sentence in California after a 2022 plea deal on state sex-abuse charges. Federal filings recount allegations stretching back generations, naming García’s late father, Samuel Joaquín Flores, and grandfather, Aarón Joaquin Gonzalez, as having exploited followers, and alleging that relatives and staff aided the abuse. The newly unsealed document says that on at least one occasion Samuel’s wife held down a minor so Samuel could rape the victim.
Prosecutors said the alleged abuse continued across generations, with some survivors who remained in the congregation later becoming the parents of new victims. "So many survivors have been speaking up now," said Sochil Martin, a former member who has assisted investigators. Martin told NPR that her aunt, now in her 60s, said she was assaulted as a teenager and that the federal charges offered a measure of justice.
García’s attorney, Alan Jackson, said the indictment recycles claims that have been investigated and ‘‘debunked and disproven before.’' Jackson called the federal action ‘‘a reckless campaign of government overreach’’ and said he will prove the charges are unfounded.
The case represents a significant federal escalation after state-level prosecutions. The unsealed indictment accuses García and his associates of operating a racketeering enterprise that included sexual exploitation and the production and distribution of child pornography. It charges the defendants with using the church’s global infrastructure to recruit, coerce and move victims to facilitate the alleged crimes.
La Luz del Mundo, founded in Mexico and described by authorities as a megachurch with millions of members, has faced public scrutiny for years over allegations of sexual misconduct by senior leaders. Survivors and former members have told investigators that church leadership used spiritual authority and promises of salvation to control followers and conceal abuse.
Federal prosecutors have not yet announced trial dates. Court records show García was moved into federal custody following the unsealing of the indictment; his mother remained in Los Angeles custody pending federal proceedings. The indictment names five other defendants and details conduct that federal officials said spanned multiple continents and decades.
Investigations by U.S. and international authorities continue as survivors, advocates and former church members respond to the unsealed charges. Some said the filings validated long-standing complaints and may help prompt further disclosures from victims in Mexico and abroad.