By Luc Cohen

NEW YORK (Reuters) -The leader of a Mexico-based megachurch with 5 million followers worldwide has been hit with federal sex trafficking charges in the United States, prosecutors said on Wednesday.

Naason Joaquin Garcia, the self-styled apostle of the Guadalajara-based evangelical church La Luz del Mundo (Light of the World), was taken into federal custody in California, where he is serving a sentence of 16 years and eight months in prison after pleading guilty in 2022 to state-level charges of sexually abusing three girls.

In a separate indictment unsealed on Wednesday, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office said Joaquin, 56, for decades trafficked women and girls for sex, produced child pornography, and destroyed evidence of his crimes. He faces six counts, including racket

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