Naasón Joaquín García — La Luz del Mundo
Leader ('the Apostle') of La Luz del Mundo, who pleaded guilty in California in 2022 to forcible oral copulation involving minors and a lewd act on a 15-year-old, and was sentenced to 16 years 8 months. In September 2025 he was indicted in New York on federal racketeering and sex-trafficking charges that remain pending — charged, not convicted.
La Luz del Mundo Pleaded guilty (2022); federally charged (2025) — pending
- Person
- Naasón Joaquín García
- Role
- Leader ('the Apostle') of La Luz del Mundo
- Institution
- La Luz del Mundo (headquartered in Guadalajara, Mexico)
- Location
- Los Angeles County, California; Southern District of New York
- Status
- Pleaded guilty in California (2022); indicted federally (2025) — federal charges pending, presumed innocent
- Sentence
- 16 years 8 months (California, 2022); lifetime sex-offender registration
Case in brief
Tier 1 · Court-proven — the California plea and sentence
Naasón Joaquín García leads La Luz del Mundo (‘The Light of the World’), the Guadalajara-based church founded by his grandfather and led by his father until 2014, whose followers regard him as an apostle of Jesus Christ. On June 3, 2022, days before trial was to begin in Los Angeles, García pleaded guilty to two counts of forcible oral copulation involving minors and one count of a lewd act upon a child who was 15 years old. On June 8, 2022, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge sentenced him to 16 years and 8 months in prison and ordered lifetime sex-offender registration; the sentencing judge called him a ‘sexual predator.’
Charged is not convicted. In September 2025 a federal grand jury in New York indicted García and five others — including his mother — on racketeering-conspiracy and sex-trafficking charges. Those charges are allegations only. He is presumed innocent of them, and nothing in this file treats them as established. The California guilty plea above is what a court has established.
The institution
La Luz del Mundo kept García as its Apostle after his plea. In the church’s own statements, quoted by the Associated Press and Christianity Today in June 2022, the church said its ‘confidence in him remains intact,’ framed the plea as an agreement accepted ’to protect the church and his family’ and ’to minimize his prison sentence,’ and said García ‘will continue ministering to the church… as he did for Apostle Paul.’ In September 2022 he addressed the church’s Holy Supper gathering in Guadalajara by telephone from prison. The membership figure the church claims (some five million followers) is the church’s claim, carried in reporting; it is not a court finding.
The record
Tier 1 · Court-proven — California
| Item | Record |
|---|---|
| Guilty plea | June 3, 2022 — counts 1, 7 and 9: two counts of forcible oral copulation involving minors; one count of a lewd act upon a child who was 15 (California Attorney General) |
| Sentence | June 8, 2022 — 16 years 8 months; lifetime sex-offender registration (Los Angeles County Superior Court, Coen, J.) |
| Co-defendants (state case) | Susana Medina Oaxaca pleaded guilty the same day to assault likely to cause great bodily injury; Alondra Ocampo had pleaded guilty in 2020 to three felony counts of contact with a minor for the purposes of committing a sexual offense and one count of forcible sexual penetration |
Tier 2 · Federal charges — allegations only
| Item | Record |
|---|---|
| Indictment unsealed | September 10, 2025 (U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York) |
| Defendants | García; Rosa Sosa; Azalia Rangel García; Eva García de Joaquín (his mother); Joram Núñez Joaquín; Silem García Peña |
| Counts | Racketeering conspiracy; sex trafficking conspiracy; sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion; inducement to travel to engage in unlawful sexual activity; conspiracy to sexually exploit children; child exploitation enterprise |
| Custody on unsealing | García taken into federal custody September 10, 2025, in Chino, California, where he was serving the state sentence (identified in AP reporting as the California Institution for Men); three co-defendants were at large and believed to be in Mexico |
Status
Serving the California sentence of 16 years 8 months. The federal case is pending: indicted, not tried. This archive’s last verified custody statement is the September 10, 2025 federal transfer in Chino; his present facility is not stated because no primary source located in this build confirms it. This file will be updated as the federal case proceeds — in either direction.
Attributed allegations — not court findings
Tier 2 · Attributed allegations
The federal indictment alleges that a ‘Joaquín LLDM Enterprise’ exploited the church over decades to facilitate the systemic sexual abuse of children and women. That is the prosecution’s allegation, unproven. García’s counsel has denied the federal charges categorically, calling them recycled and unfounded — a defense statement, also not a finding. The church’s statements maintaining his innocence and his apostleship are the institution’s own words, reported by the AP and Christianity Today.
Records requested & responses
This archive has not filed records requests in this case. The file rests on the published sources below and will be updated if court or institutional records are obtained, or if that changes.
Video coverage
Verified coverage of this case, embedded from the publishers’ own channels — this archive does not download or re-upload other outlets’ video. Each segment below was verified through the YouTube Data API on October 25, 2026; the channel and date in each caption are the API’s own records.
- California Attorney General, ‘Attorney General Bonta Secures Conviction Against Megachurch Leader Naasón Joaquín García’ (June 3, 2022 — plea, counts 1, 7 and 9): oag.ca.gov
- California Attorney General, statement on the sentence (June 8, 2022 — 16 years 8 months; lifetime registration): oag.ca.gov
- U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York, ‘Naasón Joaquín García Charged With Racketeering Conspiracy, Sex Trafficking, And Child Exploitation’ (September 10, 2025 — defendants, counts, custody; charges are accusations only): justice.gov
- Associated Press (September 2022), jailed faith leader addresses his flock by phone from prison at Holy Supper, via syndication: 953thebeach.com
- Christianity Today (June 2022), plea and sentencing coverage including the church’s ‘Apostle Paul’ statement: christianitytoday.com
Filed October 25, 2026, from the published sources below. Minor victims are never named or identified in this file.