The FBI tracks animal cruelty as a predictor of violence against humans – and has for years.
Francisco Javier Ravelo, 36, of Coral Gables just pled guilty to exactly the kind of sadistic behavior that puts law enforcement on high alert.
And the law that’s going to send him to prison is one Donald Trump signed.
What Ravelo Did
Ravelo didn’t just watch these videos.
He created the online chat groups where they circulated.
He personally distributed more than 40 videos depicting baby and adult monkeys being mutilated, burned, and sexually abused.
He ran the operation.
Homeland Security Investigations tracked him down, the Justice Department prosecuted him, and on March 2, 2026, he stood before a federal court and pled guilty to distributing animal crush videos – a federal crime under Trump’s Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act.
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He now faces up to seven years in federal prison.
“If you are involved in this sadistic activity, we will prosecute you,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.
This Is Bigger Than One Man
Ravelo isn’t an isolated case.
The Justice Department has been dismantling a nationwide monkey torture network for over two years – and the prosecutions keep coming.
In Ohio, Ronald Bedra was sentenced to 54 months in prison for commissioning torture videos.
In New Jersey, Giancarlo Morelli – a married father – paid for those videos 19 times and asked the torturers to make the suffering last longer.
In Philadelphia, Robert Berndt got 38 months after prosecutors told the sentencing judge that his appetite for the most extreme torture, expressed repeatedly across hundreds of messages, stood out even within a group of sadists.
In May 2025, a federal grand jury indicted 11 more defendants from across the country – men and women from Arizona, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, New York, Connecticut, Louisiana, and North Carolina.
These people weren’t in the same city.
They found each other online, pooled money through encrypted messaging apps, and wired payments to individuals in Indonesia who carried out the torture on camera.
Why Law Enforcement Takes This So Seriously
The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida said something that deserves attention.
Jason Reding Quiñones is a former state court trial judge who presided over domestic violence cases.
He said deliberate cruelty to animals is one of the clearest warning signs he knows – a sign that violence is escalating.
He’s right, and the data backs him up.
The FBI treats animal cruelty as a predictor of violence against people.
A landmark study by the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals found that people who abuse animals are five times more likely to commit violent crimes against humans.
Among men arrested for animal cruelty, 41 percent had been arrested at least once for interpersonal violence and 18 percent for a sex offense.
The people running these monkey torture groups aren’t just animal abusers.
They’re individuals who have developed a capacity for inflicting suffering and a taste for watching it – and law enforcement knows exactly where that leads.
Trump Built the Tool That’s Taking Them Down
Before Trump signed the PACT Act into law in November 2019, federal prosecutors had limited options.
The 2010 Animal Crush Video Prohibition Act banned distribution of the videos – but not the underlying cruelty itself.
Actual animal torture was largely left to the states, with wildly inconsistent penalties.
For years, nobody in Washington cared enough to close that loophole.
Trump closed it.
The PACT Act made intentional animal crushing, burning, and mutilation a federal felony carrying up to seven years in prison – and gave federal law enforcement the jurisdiction to pursue these networks wherever they cross state lines.
Every one of these prosecutions – Ravelo, Morelli, Berndt, the 11 indicted in May 2025 – flows directly from the law Trump signed.
Democrats didn’t build this.
Trump did.
And the convictions are piling up.
Sources:
- U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, “Miami-Area Man Pleads Guilty to Distributing Videos Depicting Sexual Torture of Baby Monkeys,” DOJ.gov, March 2, 2026.
- NBC6 South Florida, “South Florida man pleads guilty to distributing videos showing sexual torture of baby monkeys,” NBC6.com, March 2, 2026.
- Chris Spargo, “Married Dad, 39, Who Bought Videos of Men Mutilating and Sexually Abusing Monkeys Learns Fate,” People, October 31, 2025.
- U.S. Department of Justice, “Grand Jury Indicts 11 More Individuals for Involvement with Online Groups Dedicated to Monkey Torture and Mutilation,” DOJ.gov, May 16, 2025.
- U.S. Department of Justice, “New Jersey Man Sentenced to Prison for Conspiring to Create and Distribute Videos Depicting Monkey Torture and Mutilation,” DOJ.gov, September 30, 2025.
- LA County Animal Care & Control, “The Link Between Animal Abuse and Human Violence,” AnimalCare.LACounty.gov, May 16, 2025.
