This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The leader and self-proclaimed apostle of La Luz del Mundo, a Mexico-based church with branches in the US that claims more than 1 million followers, has been charged with human trafficking and child rape.

Joaquín García and a follower of the church, 24-year-old Susana Medina Oaxaca, were arrested on Monday after landing at Los Angeles international airport, the office of California’s attorney general, Xavier Becerra, said.

About 1,000 worshippers gathered at the headquarters of La Luz del Mundo in Guadalajara, Jalisco, on Tuesday evening to pray for García as he was held in Los Angeles on $25m bail.

García, 50, faces 26 counts of felony charges that range from human trafficking and production of child abuse images to rape of a minor. The charges detail a series of disturbing allegations involving three girls and one woman between 2015 and 2018 in Los Angeles county.

The fundamentalist Christian church, whose name translates to The Light of the World, was founded in 1926 by García’s grandfather. It has been the subject of child sex abuse allegations for years but authorities in Mexico have never filed criminal charges. It has more than 15,000 churches in 58 countries, according to its website. The church’s followers must adhere to a strict moral code in exchange for the promise of eternal salvation.

García – who was a minister in Los Angeles and other parts of southern California before becoming the church’s leader – coerced the victims into performing sex acts by telling them that refusing would be going against God, authorities said. He allegedly forced the victims, who were members of the church, to sexually touch themselves and each other. One of his co-defendants also allegedly took nude photographs of the victims and sent the pictures to García.

García told one of the victims and others in 2017, after they had completed a “flirty” dance wearing “as little clothing as possible”, that kings can have mistresses and an apostle of God cannot be judged for his actions, the complaint states.

“Crimes like those alleged in this complaint have no place in our society. Period,” Becerra said in a press release. “We must not turn a blind eye to sexual violence and trafficking in our state.”

The attorney general’s investigation began in 2018, prompted in part by a tip to the state’s department of justice through an online clergy abuse complaint form.

David Correa, a spokesman from the church’s headquarters, said in a phone call that they learned about the charges from the media.

“We categorically deny those false accusations,” Correa said. “We know him personally and he is an honorable and honest man.”

Church officials said García had always behaved lawfully and they rejected the attorney general’s charges.

The church’s statement on Tuesday said it hoped the accusations would not lead to discrimination and religious intolerance against its followers.

A third follower, Alondra Ocampo, 36, was arrested in Los Angeles county and is being held ahead of her arraignment on Wednesday in Los Angeles. A fourth defendant, Azalea Rangel Meléndez, remains at large.

It was not immediately clear whether the defendants had an attorney.﻿