Neo-Nazi group coerced kids to make porn, carve members’ names in skin in CA, feds say
An online Neo-Nazi group that targets children for sexual exploitation coerced at least 16 minors, including two in Southern California, into creating child pornography and self-harm content, according to the Justice Department.
Four members of CVLT, which is pronounced “cult,” were charged with engaging in a child exploitation enterprise, the Justice Department said in a news release.
CVLT has three core principles: neo-Nazism, nihilism, and pedophilia, according to prosecutors.
Colin John Thomas Walker, 23; Clint Jordan Lopaka Nahooikaika Borge, 41; Rohan Sandeep Rane, 28; and Kaleb Christopher Merritt, 24 are charged in an indictment that was unsealed Jan. 30, according to the Justice Department.
The men “participated in their online child exploitation activities because they wanted to create an army of sadist followers,” the indictment said.
Walker, of Bridgeton, New Jersey, and Borge, of Pahoa, Hawaii, were arrested the morning of Jan. 30, according to prosecutors.
Information regarding the men’s legal representation wasn’t immediately available Jan. 31.
Prosecutors said CVLT members groom children online to coerce them into producing child pornography by degrading them in several ways.
According to the indictment:
“This included coercing children to engage in dehumanizing acts (e.g., cutting and eating their own hair or calling themselves CVLT’s “slaves”), self-harm (e.g., carving with razor blades CVLT members’ names into their skin), and exposing children to extremist and violent content (e.g., displaying videos of animals being tortured to death and women being raped).”
The members also encouraged victims to drink their urine, punch themselves and call themselves racial slurs, the Justice Department said.
The coercion escalated further when CVLT members pressured children “to kill themselves on a video livestream,” prosecutors said.
Members threatened to share compromising photos and videos to family members and friends of minors who tried resisting the coercion — or warned they’d report them to their parents or law enforcement, according to the Justice Department.
“For children who refused, CVLT would sometimes carry through on their threats,” the indictment said.
CVLT members try to exploit children’s existing vulnerabilities, including personal mental health struggles or the impacts of previous sexual abuse, according to the indictment.
Two of the 16 victims are from San Bernardino County, which borders Los Angeles County, the indictment shows. Some are located around the world, prosecutors said.
Collectively, CVLT operates as an international enterprise and trafficks child sexual abuse material, according to the Justice Department. Walker, Borge, Rane and Merritt were involved in CVLT from at least 2019 to 2022, prosecutors said.
Walker, along with Rane, of Antibes, France, and Merritt, of Spring, Texas, were leaders and administrators of the group, according to prosecutors.
Rane is in custody in France, where he’s been detained since 2022 in connection with child exploitation and similar offenses, the Justice Department said.
Merritt is serving a 50-year prison sentence in Virginia for child sexual abuse crimes in 2020 and 2021, according to prosecutors.
If all four men are convicted of engaging in a child exploitation enterprise, they’d face a minimum sentence of 20 years in prison, and up to life in prison, the Justice Department said.
Suspected child exploitation can be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s CyberTipline online, or by calling 1-800-843-5678.
This story was originally published January 31, 2025 at 1:47 PM with the headline "Neo-Nazi group coerced kids to make porn, carve members’ names in skin in CA, feds say."
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