The BBC spent a year investigating a torture ring operating in the US, UK, Indonesia and other countries.
A global network of torturing monkeys, from Indonesia to the United States, has been uncovered in a year-long BBC World Service investigation.
Hundreds of customers in the US, UK and elsewhere have paid Indonesians to torture and kill baby monkeys and record them on video.
The torture ring started on YouTube, before moving to private groups on the Telegram encrypted messaging app.
Police are now hunting down the buyers of the pictures. Several arrests have already been made.
Warning: This article contains disturbing descriptions.
BBC reporters have infiltrated one of Telegram’s main torture groups, where hundreds of sadists gather to present extreme torture ideas and hire people in Indonesia and other Asian countries to carry them out.
The BBC located both the torturers in Indonesia and the distributors and buyers in the United States and gained access to an international police operation seeking to prosecute those involved.
At least 20 people are under investigation around the world, including three UK-based women who were arrested by police last year and released (but are still being investigated), and a man in the US state of Oregon who is was indicted last week. .
Mike McCartney, a leading US video distributor known as ‘The Torture King’, agreed to speak to the BBC and described the moment he first joined a monkey torture group on Telegram.
“They would organize a poll,” McCartney said. “Do you want a hammer involved? Do you want pliers involved? Do you want a screwdriver?”
The video that resulted from the encounter was “the most grotesque thing I’ve ever seen,” he said.
“Bloody Hands”
McCartney, a former motorcycle gang member who spent time in prison before entering the underworld of animal torture, ran several Telegram groups where violent torture enthusiasts distributed videos.
“It’s no different than drug money,” he said. “Drug money comes from dirty hands, this money comes from bloody hands.”
The BBC has also identified two other key suspects now being investigated by the US Department of Homeland Security: Stacey Storey, a 47-year-old Alabama grandmother known in the community as “Sadisctic” and a ringleader known as ” Mr Ape” (“Mr. Monkey”) — whose real name we cannot disclose for security reasons.
“Mr Monkey” confessed in a BBC interview that he was responsible for the deaths of at least four monkeys and the torture of many more. He had commissioned “extremely brutal” videos, he said.
Storey’s phone was confiscated by Department of Homeland Security officers, who found nearly 100 torture videos, as well as evidence that he paid for the creation of some of the most extreme videos produced.
According to law enforcement sources, Storey has been active in a torture ring until as recently as earlier this month. Approached by the BBC in Alabama in January, Storey claimed she was hacked and declined to comment on the allegations in detail.
“Mr. Monkey”, Stacey Storey and Mike McCartney are three of the top five targets in the Department of Homeland Security’s ongoing investigation.
They have not yet been charged, but face up to seven years in prison if they are prosecuted on the basis of evidence gathered by US authorities.
Special Agent Paul Wolpert, who is leading the Department of Homeland Security investigation, said all officers were deeply shocked by the nature of the alleged crimes.
“I don’t know if anyone was ready for a crime like this,” he said. “Same with the lawyers and the jury, and anyone reading that’s happening. It’s a shock, I guess.”
Agent warns: Anyone involved in the purchase or distribution of the monkey torture videos will hear “a knock on your door at some point.”
“You’re not going to get away with this,” says Wolpert.
Indonesian police arrested two torture suspects. Asep Yadi Nurul Hikmah was accused of torturing animals and selling a protected species of monkey and sentenced to three years in prison.
Ajis Rasjana was sentenced to eight months, the maximum sentence for animal torture.
Videos of monkey torture are still easily accessible on Telegram and Facebook, where the BBC recently discovered dozens of groups sharing extreme content, some with more than a thousand members.
“We have seen an escalation of this extreme graphic content that was previously hidden but is now openly circulating on platforms like Facebook,” said Sarah Kite, co-founder of animal charity Action for Primates.
Facebook told the BBC it has removed the groups we show the company. “We do not allow the promotion of animal abuse on our platforms and will remove such content when we become aware of it, as we did in this case,” a spokesperson said.
Kite wants UK laws updated to make it easier to prosecute people who pay to make torture videos.
“If someone is proactively involved in inflicting this pain, by paying for it and providing a list of things they want done to the animal, there should be stronger laws to hold them accountable,” she said.
YouTube told the BBC in a statement that animal abuse “cannot be” on the platform and that the company is “working hard to quickly remove content that violates its policies.”
“This year alone, we have removed hundreds of thousands of videos and shut down thousands of channels for violating our violent and outspoken policies,” the statement said.
Telegram said it was “committed to protecting user privacy and human rights such as freedom of expression,” adding that its moderators “can’t proactively patrol private groups.”
Source: Terra
Rose James is a Gossipify movie and series reviewer known for her in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the latest releases. With a background in film studies, she provides engaging and informative reviews, and keeps readers up to date with industry trends and emerging talents.
