In October 1962, Jesús Laporta, a sixteen-year-old regular pioneer, moved to Castellón de la Plana, on the east Mediterranean coast of Spain. His pioneer partner was Florentino Castro. Their presence brought the group there to a total of five Kingdom proclaimers and gave impetus to the preaching activity. Naturally, this brought them to the attention of the clergy and the local police.

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.

The authorities were pitiless in their persecution of this group of young people, returning to the attack in September 1964, when they again arrested Florentino Castro and Juan Pedro Ruiz. For “propagating ideas and proselyting activities” of the “Protestant sect Jehovah’s Witnesses,” they were fined 5,000 pesetas each. So it was that within fifteen months Florentino had been fined three times for the same offense.

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.