A federal grand jury has charged Naasón JoaquÃn GarcÃa, the head of Mexican megachurch La Luz del Mundo, with two counts related to child pornography. GarcÃa, who is currently serving a 17-year sentence in a California state prison for three counts of sex with a minor, now faces up to 40 years in federal prison.
The charges were brought after his arrest in 2019 at Los Angeles International Airport, where he was found in possession of an iPad containing five videos depicting a minor engaged in sexual activity. Last year, GarcÃa pleaded guilty to two state charges of forcible oral copulation on a minor and one count of a lewd act on a 15-year-old child.
GarcÃa, who assumed leadership of La Luz del Mundo after his father, Samuel JoaquÃn Flores, was the church’s third leader. Prior to that, he served as a minister for the megachurch in Santa Ana and other cities across Southern California and Arizona. The church, which claims to have 5 million followers worldwide, stated that GarcÃa pleaded guilty due to concerns over receiving a fair trial.
The U.S. District Attorney’s Office waited until the conclusion of the state case before filing the additional federal charges. According to the federal indictment, GarcÃa is accused of coercing a 16-year-old minor into engaging in sexually explicit conduct and the possession of videos found on his iPad. If convicted on both federal charges, GarcÃa could be sentenced to a minimum of 15 years and a maximum of 40 years in federal prison for child pornography production and possession. The determination of whether the federal sentence will be served concurrently with or in addition to the state sentence will be made by a judge.