HomeCrimeNaasón Joaquín García faces federal child sex abuse charges

Naasón Joaquín García faces federal child sex abuse charges

FILE – Naason Joaquin Garcia, the leader of the La Luz del Mundo, Spanish for The Light of the World, appears in Los Angeles County Superior Court, on June 5, 2019. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File). Inset: FILE – Naasón Joaquín García leads a service at his church “La Luz del Mundo” in Guadalajara, Mexico on Aug. 9, 2018. (AP Photo/File)

The disgraced leader of an international megachurch serving more than 16 years in a California prison for sexually abusing children has been hit with federal child sex abuse material charges.

Naasón Joaquín García, the leader of the La Luz del Mundo church — also known in English as the Church of the Living God, Pillar and Ground of the Truth, The Light of the World — forced a child into sexually explicit acts and recorded it, the U.S. Department of Justice announced in a press release Wednesday.

The federal two-count indictment charges Garcia with one count of production of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography, the DOJ announcement says.

“[O]n May 6, 2019, García knowingly employed, used, persuaded, induced, enticed, and coerced a minor — identified in the indictment as ‘Minor Victim 1,’ who was 16 years old at the time — to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of such conduct,” the DOJ says. “On June 3, 2019, García allegedly possessed an iPad that contained five videos depicting Minor Victim 1 engaging in sexual activity. Law enforcement seized the iPad when García was arrested at LAX.”

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