The Los Illuminados were a dark cult based in a rural area of Europe that worshipped the ancient Las Plagas parasitic organism, and sought to use the parasite for their own ends.
History
The Los Illuminados' plans were initially extinguished by the first castellan of the prominent and noble Salazar family, who prosecuted the members of the cult and had the Plagas sealed away in the very depths of the Salazar Castle, in fossilised form. On top of this, the Salazar family somehow possesed the ability to control the Plagas themselves, and this was a necessary component of the overall goal of the Los Illuminados, who wanted to use the parasite in a bid to spread their religion throughout the world and control every being infected with the parasite as a sort of collective hivemind on a global scale.
At some point, the latest leader of the cult named Osmund Saddler fascinated the 8th lord Ramon Salazar. With Salazar's backing, Saddler travelled to a nearby village and with the help of the village chief, Bitores Mendez, began long and public religious readings directed at the villagers. A large amount were recruited to excavate the fossilized remains of the Plagas. However, the parasite existed in the form of spores at this time, and infected the villagers as soon as they were inhaled.
South Europe Incident ~ 2004
Some years later, the parasites which previously existed in spore form began to mature in the bodies of the villagers, and the village began to be swallowed up by the power of the cult. Saddler took back the Plaga, which had been sealed away by the Salazar family. He administered the Plaga to Bitorez Mendez, who was the village chief and priest, and used Mendez to force the villagers to undergo the blood cleansing ritual and turn them into puppets that are the Ganado. Now with some of the villagers under his control, Saddler then infected the rest of the village with the rest of the excavated Las Plagas via direct injection of Plagas eggs as part of a "blood cleansing ritual". At some point, the Illuminados managed to take over an offshore island base, and organized a private Plagas-infected militia. A heavily armed battleship was also included. They also hired countless researchers such as Luis Sera who studied the parasites themselves, while others conducted genetic experiments with them, producing B.O.W.s such as the Regenerador, Novistador, U-3 and El Gigante.
Saddler's overall goal involved the capture of the United States President's daughter, Ashley Graham, and infecting her with the parasite. Once infected, she would be sent back to the U.S. (after some "donations") and the parasite would hatch, and proceed to infect the entire U.S. administration, effectively bringing the entire world to Saddler's fingertips. However due to the actions of Leon S. Kennedy, these plans were destroyed and Saddler was killed.
The current status of the cult is unknown, or whether they even exist at all anymore due to the deaths of Osmund Saddler, Ramon Salazar and Bitores Mendez.