Naasón Joaquín García and Five Others Charged in US Over Alleged Abuse Linked to La Luz del Mundo

Judicial authorities in New York formally charged Naasón Joaquín García and five other people with crimes related to the La Luz del Mundo Church, according to a report from nmas.com.mx dated September 10, 2025. According to the New York Homeland Security Investigations Office, the charges followed a years-long investigation that spanned the country.

The indictment alleges that a criminal organization within the church persisted for decades to facilitate systematic sexual abuse of children and women, including sadistic abuse images and videos of minors. The New York grand jury stated that the church operated for the sexual gratification of Naasón and of his father, Samuel Joaquín Flores, who died in 2014. These are allegations in an indictment, and no finding of guilt on these charges has been reported. Naasón and his network could face maximum penalties for the six crimes with which they were charged.

Naasón Joaquín García was placed in federal custody on a Wednesday in Chino, California, where he is serving a sentence of more than 16 years. He pleaded guilty to two state charges in 2022. The report also said that Eva García de Joaquín, Naasón’s mother, was arrested on a Wednesday in Los Angeles and is expected to appear in the Central District of California. The indictment says she caressed minors and women so that her husband would commit sexual abuses, and that she also sexually abused minors and young women. Again, these are the indictment’s allegations.

A separate report from losangelespress.org, which is undated in the material provided, takes a different angle. It describes Naasón Joaquín García as a prominent leader of La Luz del Mundo and says he has been included in the Protestant Accountability database. That database was recently launched and is intended to track clergy sexual abuse cases across non-Catholic religious groups. The report notes that many Protestant and non-Christian religious organizations lack a unified authority system, unlike the Catholic Church, and that the database is meant to compile information on accused leaders and serve as a resource for authorities and communities.

The losangelespress.org report says the inclusion has raised questions about potential criminal investigations into abuse allegations within La Luz del Mundo settings in Mexico. It also states that the database’s launch may prompt increased scrutiny and action from religious and governmental authorities. The two reports focus on different aspects of the case: one on the New York charges and custody proceedings, the other on the database listing and its possible effects. Protecting the vulnerable, as the charges concerning children describe, is the central concern that both the indictment and the database’s stated purpose address (Psalm 82:3).