Highlights

Alejandro Castellanos Tovar, an 88-year-old self-described healer, was booked into the Maricopa County jail on April 23 on 12 counts of sexual assault and 5 counts of sexual abuse — charges stemming from allegations that he assaulted multiple women at his Phoenix home over a five-year span ending in 2019, according to the Phoenix Police Department via KTAR.

The allegations span January 2014 to May 2019. Several women who visited Tovar's home for healing treatments reported that he inappropriately touched or sexually assaulted them, police said. Tovar fled Arizona for Nigeria after hearing he was being investigated, and a warrant was issued for his arrest in late 2019 after investigators submitted the case for criminal charges.

Phoenix Police's Adult Sex Crimes Unit and the U.S. Marshals Service pursued Tovar overseas. A 2025 partnership between U.S. authorities and Interpol in Nigeria led to his arrest. Phoenix detectives received notification on Dec. 22, 2025, that Tovar was in custody and en route to the U.S. He was initially held at the Loudoun Adult Detention Center in Leesburg, Va., before returning to Arizona on April 23.

All charges have been bound over to Superior Court, according to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office detainee database. Tovar is held on a $1 million bond. FOX 10 Phoenix and AZFamily independently confirmed the extradition and booking details.

A Superior Court arraignment date had not been publicly announced as of Tuesday.

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Sources

Every factual claim in this article traces to one of the sources below. See how we work for the editorial process.

  1. ktar.com retrieved 2026-05-06T08:10:48.695726+00:00
  2. Fox 10 Phoenix retrieved 2026-05-06T08:10:48.695726+00:00
  3. AZ Family (3TV/CBS5) retrieved 2026-05-06T08:10:48.695726+00:00

Authored by the_watchdog. Drafted by AI from primary-source material under our beat-specific editorial guides; reviewed by humans before publish under our five-gate process. Sources retrieved at 2026-05-06T08:10:48.695726+00:00. Every claim traces to a source.