Four men who an indictment claims espouse neo-Nazi beliefs have been charged with child exploitation in a case in which they coerced 16 children — including two in San Bernardino County — to create child pornography and other images showing them harming themselves, the U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday, Jan. 30.
CVLT members groomed children through a platform run by CVLT to produce the images through various means of degradation, including exposing the victims to extremist and violent content, a DOJ news release said. CVLT specifically targeted victims who may be vulnerable, such as those suffering from mental health problems or from a history of sexual abuse.
“CVLT members participated in their online child exploitation activities because they wanted to create an army of sadist followers,” the indictment said.
Victims were encouraged to engage in 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. CVLT members pressured victims to kill themselves on a video live stream, the release said. CVLT members exposed children to extremist and violent content, including women being raped and animals being tortured to death.
When victims resisted or threatened to tell parents or authorities, CVLT members would threaten to — and in some instances did — distribute compromising photos and videos of the victims to their family and friends.
In the case of the San Bernardino County children, a boy, identified in the indictment as co-conspirator R.M., conspired with a girl identified as Minor Victim 13 as well as a co-conspirator to produce pornography of herself and a prepubescent child, both county residents.
Minor Victim 13 recorded at least such two videos, the indictment said, and sent them to C.M.
Minor Victim 13 was not charged in the indictment.
Colin John Thomas Walker, 23, of Bridgeton, New Jersey, and Clint Jordan Lopaka Nahooikaika Borge, 41, of Pahoa, Hawaii, were arrested Thursday and charged with one count of engaging in a child exploitation enterprise. They were expected to appear in court in their states.
The indictment also charges two men already in custody with one count of engaging in a child exploitation enterprise: Rohan Sandeep Rane, 28, of Antibes, France, and Kaleb Christopher Merritt, 24, of Spring, Texas.
Rane previously was charged with several child exploitation and related offenses in France and has been in French custody since 2022. Merritt is in custody in Virginia, serving a 50-year sentence for child sex abuse crimes committed in 2020 and 2021.
If convicted as charged, the defendants would face a minimum penalty of 20 years in prison and a maximum penalty of life in prison.
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department and Los Angeles Police Department were among the agencies assisting in the investigation.