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.
In a statement released on Friday, the U.S. Department of Justice said that Baron Martin, 20, of Tucson, Arizona, was arrested 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.
On Friday afternoon, a public defender named for Martin in court records was not immediately available for comment.
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 youth to violence and undermine social norms around 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.
Prosecutors claimed that Martin, who used the online handle Convict, has been active on online chatrooms connected to 764 and CVLT since 2021. Prosecutors said Martin, who declared himself the king of extortion and taught other members how to extort victims, was the proprietor 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.
According to authorities, Martin is also charged with cyberstalking another 13-year-old victim in connection with threats he communicated via Discord in September 2022.
On Friday, no Discord user was immediately contacted for comment.
Prosecutors claim that Martin informed the teenage girl that he had placed a hit on her grandma. According to the prosecution, Martin consented to pay someone $3,000 to kidnap and murder the teen’s grandma.
Prosecutors claim that Martin posted the minor’s and her grandmother’s phone numbers online and instructed the network to call both numbers in order to harass them.
In the statement, Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matthew G. Olsen described the terror organizations Martin was a part of as a dangerous network of violent extremists and stated that his agency is dedicated to putting an end to them.
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