A New Jersey man has been sentenced for acting as the middleman in a monkey torture ring, where customers paid for horrifying “monkey crushing” videos showing young chimps being physically and sexually abused by a child.
Giancarlo Morelli received a four-year prison sentence for conspiring to produce and distribute the grotesque fetish films to buyers, the U.S. Department of Justice reported.
Giancarlo Morelli of New Jersey was sentenced to four years in prison for his role in the torture of monkeys, such as the one seen in a file photo.
Morelli and co-conspirator Nicholas T. Dryden of Cincinnati were arrested in June 2024. Prosecutors said the two communicated through private online groups and chats devoted to monkey torture and mutilation videos between March and April 2023.
Philip Colt Moss, an attorney from Iowa, was arrested in August 2024 and charged with related offenses.
The videos ranged from a few seconds to as long as 42 minutes. According to a 2024 indictment, Morelli funneled 28 payments ranging from $40 to $379 to Dryden, who then sent the money to a child in Indonesia to carry out the requested acts.
The trio arranged for the distribution of various forms of monkey torture, including “animal crushing,” although only Dryden was charged with creating the content. Federal prosecutors said the abuse depicted in the videos included “monkeys having their genitals burned, cut with scissors, and being sodomized with wooden skewers or a spoon.”
Morelli would send monkeys — like the one seen in a file photo — to Nicholas Dryden, who then paid a child in Indonesia to sexually and physically abuse the young animals.
The term “animal crushing” originally refers to a fetish in which women in stilettos stomp on animals, but it can encompass many other forms of abuse.
The creation and distribution of content depicting “animal crushing” and other acts of cruelty has been prohibited under the Animal Crush Prohibition Act of 2010. The Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act of 2019 later elevated such violations to federal crimes.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Morelli paid at least 20 times for explicit videos showing the torture and abuse of monkeys. He maintained regular contact with the recipient and even provided feedback and suggestions on the content.
“Animal crushing” was elevated to a federal crime in 2019. (File photo of monkeys.)
According to the indictment, Dryden also offered input, sending messages such as: “So, this is the best video that you have ever made. I don’t care. Go ahead and kill it. I’ll buy another one tomorrow.”
“If you pay others to torture animals or to share images of that horrific abuse, you can expect to be held accountable as if you committed the torture firsthand,” said Dominick Gerace II, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio.
Morelli originally pleaded guilty in January, and 11 others connected to the case were indicted on federal charges shortly thereafter.
