LOS ANGELES
A federal grand jury on Thursday charged the Mexico-based La Luz del Mundo megachurch leader with two felony counts, officials stated.
Naasón Joaquín García allegedly produced and possessed child sexual abuse material (CSAM) depicting a 16-year-old victim.
García, 54, previously served as a minister for the church in Santa Ana and, from December 2014, led the church in Mexico.
He was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in June 2019 on state child sexual exploitation charges.
In Thursday’s two-count federal indictment, García is charged with one count of production of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.
According to the indictment, on 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 to produce a visual depiction of such conduct.
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.
García has been in state custody since then, and in June 2022, he pleaded guilty to two counts of forcible oral copulation on a minor and one count of committing a lewd act on a child, according to officials.
He is serving a 17-year prison sentence for those crimes and is incarcerated at the California Institution for Men in Chino.
Garcia is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
If convicted of both federal charges, García would face a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in federal prison, a statutory maximum sentence of 30 years in federal prison for the child pornography production count, and a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison for the child pornography possession count.
The FBI and the California Department of Justice’s Bureau of Investigation are investigating this matter.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Catharine A. Richmond of the Violent and Organized Crime Section is prosecuting this case.