Those arrested could face a life sentence if convicted. Four men with alleged connections to a neo-Nazi organization are facing charges after targeting children and coercing them into producing pornography and then harming themselves, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. Investigators arrested Collin John Thomas Walker, a 23-year-old from New Jersey and Clint Jordan Lopaka Nahooikaika Borge, a 41-year-old from Pahoa, Hawaii Thursday morning on charges of engaging in a child exploitation enterprise, which prosecutors say was carried out in connection with a Neo-Nazi organization. The group targeted at least 16 children, including two in California’s San Bernadino County, according to prosecutors. They now face federal charges alongside two others: Rohan Sandeep Rane, a 28-year-old from Antibes, France and Kaleb Christopher Merritt, a 24-year-old from Texas. Rane has been in French custody since 2022 on charges of child exploitation and other related crimes, while Merritt is serving a 50-year sentence in Virginia for child sex abuse crimes committed in 2020 and 2021. All four suspects are named in an indictment filed on January 17 and unsealed Thursday. The men are members of the internet Neo-Nazi group CVLT, an organization “dedicated to…online child exploitation,” prosecutors allege in the indictment. The group names “neo-Nazism, nihilism and pedophilia” as their core principles, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. Rane, Walker, and Merritt “acted as leaders and administrators” for the group with the goal of “[creating] an army of sadist followers,” prosecutors say. The group worked to coerce children into creating pornography through “various means of degradation, including…extremist and violent content,” according to prosecutors.
via independent: Neo-Nazi group accused of blackmailing children into making sadistic pornography
siehe auch: Bridgeton Sicko Led Neo-Nazi Child Porn Ring Forcing Youth Into Self-Harm: Feds A New Jersey man is one of four cult members facing federal charges in a neo-Nazi child exploitation enterprise that groomed and then forced minors to produce child sexual abuse material and images of self-harm, authorities announced. (…) CVLT members worked collectively to entice and coerce children to self-produce CSAM on a platform run by CVLT members where they groomed children for the eventual production of CSAM through various means of degradation, including exposing the victims to extremist and violent content. CVLT specifically targeted vulnerable victims, including ones suffering from mental health challenges or a history of sexual abuse. “Victims were encouraged to engage in increasingly dehumanizing acts, including cutting and eating their own hair, drinking their urine, punching themselves, calling themselves racial slurs, and using razor blades to carve CVLT members’ names into their skin,” according to a release from the DOJ. “CVLT members’ coercion escalated to pressuring victims to kill themselves on a video livestream.” When victims hesitated, resisted, or threatened to tell parents or authorities, CVLT members would threaten to distribute already-obtained compromising photos and videos of the victims to their family and friends. For victims who stopped participating in the CSAM, CVLT would sometimes carry through on their threats; Neo-Nazi group coerced 2 San Bernardino County children and others to film child porn, harm themselves, feds say. Four men who an indictment says espouse neo-Nazi beliefs have been charged with child exploitation regarding 16 children — including two in San Bernardino County — prompting some to create child pornography or other images showing them harming themselves, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Thursday, Jan. 30. Members of CVLT — pronounced “cult” and apparently not an acronym — groomed children to produce images of degradation, including exposing the victims to extremist and violent content, a DOJ news release said. CVLT targeted victims who may be vulnerable, such as those suffering from mental-health problems or from a history of sexual abuse, the DOJ said. “CVLT members participated in their online child exploitation activities because they wanted to create an army of sadist followers,” the indictment said.