WPBN: According to federal authorities, an Arizona man was arrested this week for allegedly working with cyber terror groups to create child sex abuse materials that included coercing youngsters to self-mutilate.
The U.S. Department of Justice said Friday that Baron Martin, 20, of Tucson, Arizona, was taken into custody on Wednesday. Martin faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in jail for allegedly creating child sex abuse materials and an extra 10 years for cyberstalking if found guilty.
Martin is accused by the prosecution of belonging to the violent terror networks 764 and CVLT. Prosecutors claim that the networks target children in the US and abroad and expose them to violent content in an attempt to “desensitize young people to violence and break down societal norms regarding violence” in order to prepare and corrupt youngsters for future acts of violence.
Prosecutors claimed that the networks have a history of pursuing, grooming, extorting, and forcing young girls to mutilate themselves. Prosecutors claimed that when the mutilation acts are captured on camera, photographed, or streamed online, they are distributed to other gang members.
According to the prosecution, Martin, who used the online alias “Convict,” has been active on online chat rooms connected to 764 and CVLT since 2021. Prosecutors said Martin, who declared himself the “king of extortion” and trained other members how to extort victims, was the owner of the online terror groups.
Prosecutors claimed that Martin posted child sex abuse content on the online chat and gaming platform Discord in September 2022.
He forced two minors to mutilate themselves for him; one of them, a 13-year-old girl, was forced to cut his name all over her body. Prosecutors claimed that if she did not comply, he threatened to release images of the child. Prosecutors said that a second child victim was 16 years old.
Prosecutors have stated that Martin is also suspected of cyberstalking a separate victim who is 13 years old. This accusation is connected to threats that Martin conveyed over Discord in September of 2022.
Martin is said to have told the teen victim that he had performed a hit on her grandmother, as stated by the prosecutors. According to the prosecution, Martin made a statement in which he agreed to pay someone $3,000 to abduct and kill the teen’s grandma.
According to the attorneys for the prosecution, Martin put the phone numbers of both the girl and her grandmother on the internet and instructed the network to call both of their numbers in order to harass them.
As stated in the statement, Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matthew G. Olsen has stated that his agency is dedicated to putting an end to the terrorist organizations that Martin was a member of. He has referred to these organizations as a “dangerous network of violent extremists.”
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