Filipino pastor, wanted by the U.S. in a trafficking scheme, has been arrested, officials say

A Filipino pastor, wanted by federal authorities in the United States for his alleged role in a convoluted sex trafficking scheme, has been arrested, officials said Sunday.

Apollo Carreon Quiboloy, the founder and leader of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ Church whose followers have called him “the appointed son of God,” was captured in the Philippines, said the country’s interior secretary Benjamin Abalos in a post shared to his official Facebook page. 

Abalos did not provide details about the arrest or the circumstances surrounding it. Rommel Francisco Marbil, chief of the Philippine National Police, also confirmed Quiboloy’s arrest but did not elaborate, the Associated Press reported.

Officials in the Philippines, including President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., have long been calling for the fugitive to surrender as he’s remained on the run from charges there related to sexual abuse and human trafficking.

The pastor faces similar charges in the U.S., where he appears on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s most wanted list for what the agency describes as “his alleged participation in a labor trafficking scheme that brought church members to the United States.” In orchestrating that scheme, Quiboloy is accused of forcing church members to solicit donations for a bogus charity that in reality went toward funding church operations “and the lavish lifestyles of its leaders,” according to the FBI. 

The list of alleged sex crimes committed by Quiboloy and other church leaders is wide-ranging. American authorities, including the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, have accused them of recruiting women to work as personal assistants, or “pastorals,” who were forced to have sex with Quiboloy in a ritual they called “night duty” in addition to preparing Quiboloy’s meals and cleaning his residences. 

An indictment filed in U.S. district court in 2021 accused Quiboloy and two of his top administrators of coordinating a sex trafficking operation where young women and girls were coerced into having sex with the church’s leader “under threats of ‘eternal damnation.'” A federal grand jury that brought the indictment charged him with conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion, sex trafficking of children and bulk cash smuggling, according to the FBI. A federal warrant was then issued for his arrest.

CBS News contacted the Philippine National Police for more information but did not receive an immediate response.