The pedophile “apostle’’ of a Mexico-based megachurch would force kiddie victims to commit incest in front of him — and have them wear masks so they wouldn’t realize it, a Manhattan federal indictment says.
Naasón Joaquín García, 56, and five of his top lieutenants at La Luz del Mundo were indicted by the feds earlier this month on charges of sex trafficking, child pornography and racketeering in a horrific sweeping case involving victims from New York to the UK to South Africa.
The indictment recently unsealed in Manhattan federal court echoes some of the previous accusations against García, who is already in prison on sex charges.
He is serving a 16-year, 8-month sentence in California after a 2022 plea deal on state sex-abuse raps involving his sick antics at his church, which boasts millions of members.
Authorities have alleged that García, his late father Samuel Joaquín Flores and dead grandfather Aarón Joaquin Gonzalez exploited a slew of followers with the help of relatives and staff.
“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 says.
Garcia was transferred to federal custody Wednesday when the indictment was unsealed — the same day his 79-year-old mother, Eva García de Joaquín, was taken into custody in Los Angeles.
Prosecutors said many girls and women abused by one generation of church leaders stayed in the congregation and later became the mothers of victims targeted by the next.
García would force boys and girls and women to have group sex while he watched, officials said, according to The Associated Press.
Some of the children would have to wear masks so they didn’t know they were having sex with relatives, authorities said, AP reported.
Garcia’s lawyer, Alan Jackson, called the indictment nothing more than “a rehashing of old, recycled claims that have been made before, scrutinized before, and ultimately debunked and disproven before.”
He said the feds were guilty of “a reckless campaign of government overreach” and that he would prove the charges are “desperate, unfounded, recycled and driven by ulterior motives.”
The new federal indictment claims Garcia and his lieutenants coerced church members into sexual abuse under the guise of religious service while threatening eternal damnation for resistance.
According to federal authorities, the church leaders transported victims across international borders to locations including New York, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, Poland and South Africa, where García sexually abused them.
“So many survivors have been speaking up now” from both Mexico and the US, said Sochil Martin, 39, a former church member who has assisted authorities investigating García, to NPR.
Martin said the church’s leadership enabled abuse across generations, pointing to her aunt, now in her 60s, who told her she was assaulted by Samuel and his wife as a teenager.
She said victims of the apostles are encouraged by the new federal charges.
“It was a good day for her,” Martin said of her aunt’s response.
“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.”
Read the full article here
