Mexico

20 profiled groups with documented operations in Mexico — 9 Extreme-band, 7 High-band, 4 Moderate or below. Presence here describes documented operations, not a judgement about Mexico or its communities; many listed groups also operate elsewhere.

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New Religious Movement

Heaven's Gate

UFO-religion led by Marshall Applewhite ('Do') and Bonnie Nettles ('Ti'). On 26 March 1997, 39 members were found dead by coordinated suicide near San Diego, believing they would board a spacecraft trailing the Hale-Bopp comet.

Christian

Church of the Lamb of God (Ervil LeBaron)

Defunct Mormon-fundamentalist violent splinter founded in 1972 by Ervil Morrell LeBaron after a fratricidal split from the Church of the Firstborn of the Fulness of Times. The movement is one of the most extensively documented violent religious-splinter cases in the US public record, with multiple criminal convictions of Ervil LeBaron, members of the LeBaron family, and adherents for murders carried out under a 'blood atonement' / 'hit list' doctrine across the 1970s, 1980s, and into the 2000s.

Judaism

Lev Tahor

Extreme isolationist Haredi-fringe sect founded by Shlomo Helbrans (1980s, d. 2017). Practises full-body covering for women, child marriages, and total community control. Leadership convicted in multiple jurisdictions; community has fled across borders to evade child-welfare investigations.

Christian

Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) / Warren Jeffs

Polygamist Mormon-fundamentalist breakaway centred in the twin towns of Hildale UT and Colorado City AZ (formerly Short Creek) plus the YFZ Ranch near Eldorado TX. Founded 1929–1935 as a polygamy-continuing breakaway from mainstream LDS Church (which had formally ended plural marriage in 1890). Warren Jeffs assumed leadership 2002 after his father Rulon Jeffs's death; convicted 2011 in Texas of two counts of child sexual assault (life+20). FLDS continues under Jeffs's smuggled-from-prison directives; estimated 6,000–10,000 members remain.

New Religious Movement

NXIVM-style Wellness Cults

NXIVM (1998–2018) and its imitators dressed coercive control as 'executive success programmes' or 'women's empowerment'. Founder Keith Raniere was convicted in 2019 of racketeering, sex trafficking, and forced labour.

Christian

Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps (Jim & Lila Reidhead)

New Mexico-based para-church group founded by James (Jim) and Deborah (Lila) Green-Reidhead in the 1980s with quasi-military uniforms, ranks ('Generals'), and a Sacramento-then-Berino fortified residential compound. Multiple 2018 New Mexico convictions for child abuse, sexual servitude, and human trafficking; founder Deborah Green sentenced to 72 years; multiple co-defendants serving sentences. Active in residual form post-prosecution.

Christian

La Luz del Mundo (Naasón Joaquín García)

Mexico-based Christian Restorationist movement founded by Eusebio Joaquín González (1926). Current leader Naasón Joaquín García was convicted in California in 2022 on multiple counts of child sexual abuse and sentenced to 16 years.

Christian

LeBaron clan polygamist groups

Network of fundamentalist Mormon polygamist groups descended from the LeBaron family. Notable for the 1972 Joel LeBaron assassination ordered by his brother Ervil; the 1977 'Lambs of God' assassinations across the US; and the 2019 Mexico cartel-related massacre of nine LeBaron family members.

Christian

Casitas del Sur / Iglesia Cristiana Restaurada

Casitas del Sur refers to a network of privately run children's shelters in Mexico City, Monterrey and Cancún operated by individuals tied to the religious organization Iglesia Cristiana Restaurada (Restored Christian Church); a January 2009 multi-agency operation rescued 126 children from two Mexico City facilities after staff defied a judicial custody order and children were found subjected to apocalyptic religious indoctrination, no outside schooling and long forced prayer. Mexico's federal government cancelled the church's registration as a religious association in 2010 over a federal criminal case alleging child trafficking and organized crime, but reported counts of children who remained missing years later vary across sources, and this entry does not assert that any individual has been finally convicted — several children, including the case's most publicized name, Ilse Michel, were not recovered for years.

Christian

Legion of Christ (Marcial Maciel)

Catholic religious congregation founded by Marcial Maciel (1941). The Vatican confirmed in 2010 that Maciel sexually abused dozens of seminarians and fathered children with multiple women; major institutional reform followed under Vatican delegate Cardinal Velasio De Paolis.

Wellness / Multi-Level

Troubled Teen Industry high-control programmes

Umbrella for the documented high-control segment of the 'Troubled Teen Industry' (WWASP, Provo Canyon School, Élan, etc.). Documented patterns of forced confinement, physical abuse, and severance from family of origin.

Christian

Latin American neo-Pentecostal prophetic / healing high-control movements (umbrella)

Umbrella entry covering a documented pattern of high-control neo-Pentecostal prophetic and healing movements within Latin American Christianity, primarily concentrated in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina, and documented in sustained Brazilian press coverage, in Brazilian criminal and regulatory proceedings against multiple named figures, and in academic work on Brazilian Pentecostalism. Several specific named ministries within this pattern are profiled separately in the catalogue. This umbrella covers the pattern at the genre level; it does NOT generalise to the broader diversity of Latin American Christianity.

Wellness / Multi-Level

Octavio Rettig — Bufo alvarius (5-MeO-DMT) facilitator network

Mexican former physician who popularised the inhalation of vapor from the Sonoran Desert toad (Bufo alvarius / Incilius alvarius, 5-MeO-DMT) globally. Multiple in-ceremony participant deaths and Mexican criminal investigations.

Wellness / Multi-Level

Bikram Yoga (Bikram Choudhury)

'Hot yoga' system created by Bikram Choudhury in the 1970s. Multiple women won civil sexual-assault judgments against him in the 2010s. Choudhury fled to Mexico to evade enforcement; the surviving Bikram Yoga community has fragmented. ESPN '30 for 30' and Netflix's 'Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator' (2019) are major documentaries.

Other

Santa Muerte high-control templos (umbrella)

Umbrella entry covering the documented high-control variants of the Mexican Santa Muerte folk-religious cult — specific templos and lineages where transactional coercive-magic obligations, severance from family, and adjacency to organised criminal networks have been documented. Distinct from the broader low-control Santa Muerte folk-veneration phenomenon (~10–12 million casual devotees) which is mainstream Mexican syncretic Catholicism.

Wellness / Multi-Level

It Works! Global

Florida-based MLM (founded 2001) best known for 'Crazy Wrap Thing' body-contouring wraps and the 'Skinny Pack' supplement bundle. ~100k 'Distributors' at 2018 peak; FDA 2012 warning letter on wrap disease claims; state attorney-general inquiries for income misrepresentation; characteristic Southern-evangelical coach culture documented across multiple ex-member accounts.

Christian

Iglesia de Cristo (Mexican high-control variants)

Generic name covers many Mexican Christian denominations. The CLCI applies to specific high-control sub-currents documented in Mexican press, particularly some independent Pentecostal congregations with documented severance and financial-extraction patterns.

Wellness / Multi-Level

5-MeO-DMT / Bufo Alvarius shaman circles

Umbrella entry for high-control Western 5-MeO-DMT facilitator circles (the powerful psychedelic from Bufo alvarius toad secretions). Multiple documented sexual misconduct and severance patterns.

Other

Mexican syncretic folk religion (umbrella)

Umbrella for Mexican syncretic folk religion — Curanderismo healing tradition, Santa Muerte veneration, various local saint cults.

Other

Santa Muerte veneration (broader)

Mexican Santa Muerte (Holy Death) veneration. Among the fastest-growing religious movements in the Americas. Substantial mainstream popular following plus documented presence in narco / cartel contexts.

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Complete list of 20 group profiles