By July 1963 the preaching work in that area was producing small groups of believers, not only in Castellón, but also in nearby towns scattered throughout this rich orange-growing region. On July 5, Florentino was arrested, and three days later the police located Jesús Laporta at his pension. Both of them were charged with illegal propaganda and proselytism and were kept in prison for thirty days.

In December 1963, Jesús was made a special pioneer, and, in the meantime, his fourteen-year-old sister came to live with him in Castellón. On April 2, 1964, police forced their way into his home during his absence and, without an official search warrant, they ransacked the place and confiscated Bibles and Bible literature, as well as the keys to the house. When they raided the home, they found regular pioneer Florentino Castro there and arrested him. While they were searching, seventeen-year-old regular pioneer Juan Pedro Ruiz turned up at the house and he was arrested. Because there was not sufficient time to appeal the fines imposed on these two brothers, they had to spend twenty days in prison.

About a week after the raid on his home, Jesús was picked up by police, who had been looking for him. He was fined 5,000 pesetas ($83), but the decision was immediately appealed. Nevertheless, Jesús spent eight days in jail, and during this time his teen-age sister was left alone and without a guardian.

In 1966, Florentino was still working in Castellón, although not as a pioneer. At 12:15 p.m. on March 22, two policemen came to his place of work and arrested him. During the interrogation at police headquarters, he was struck twice as they tried to get information from him about other brothers in the group. Florentino was charged under the country’s vagrancy law, even though he had been taken away from his place of work, which obviously indicated that he was no vagrant. However, after six days in prison, orders came from Madrid for his release, since plainly there was no basis for a charge.