Michael Macartney has been identified as the ringleader of a group that created and shared videos of monkeys being tortured.
The group was active on the messaging app, Telegram, and would pay people in Indonesia to kill and torture monkeys, both juveniles and adults, and film themselves while doing so. These videos would then be shared among various groups on Telegram, where people would also come up with different ways of torturing and killing the animals.
Macartney has now been charged in Virginia with conspiracy to create and distribute the videos.
He will reportedly plead guilty and faces up to five years behind bars.
The BBC reports that more ringleaders of the network are to be charged in coming weeks. Two British women have already been slapped with animal cruelty and obscenity charges, as well as two other American nationals.
[Photo: by artem bryzgalov for unsplash]