4 Men Accused of Having 'Satanic' Child Torture Videos Linked to International Ring: 'Ritualistic' By KC Baker

Four men in Australia are facing criminal charges in connection with their alleged involvement in possessing or distributing child sex abuse material linked to an international satanic child sex abuse ring, authorities said.

Sex Crimes Squad detectives with the New South Wales Police charged the four suspects following an investigation by a special task force into an international satanic child sex abuse material ring, the NSW Police Force said in a statement on Monday, Dec. 1.

On Thursday, Nov. 27, while executing six search warrants around Sydney, officers used a battering ram to enter the Sydney apartment of one of the four suspects, a 26-year-old man who allegedly played a “leading role” in the scheme, according to video released by NSW police, CNN reports.

Dressed in a zebra print top and shorts, the suspect, identified as Landon Germanotta-Mills, 26, by police, the Associated Press reports, was led out of the apartment in the city’s Waterloo section in handcuffs.

He and three others, Stuart Woods Riches, 39, Mark Andrew Sendecky, 42, and Benjamin Raymond Drysdale, 46, were charged with various offenses, with Germanotta-Mills and Drysdale accused of disseminating child abuse material online, police said, per the Associated Press.

While executing the warrants, officers seized electronic devices allegedly containing thousands of videos depicting the abuse of children from babies to 12-year-olds, police said, according to the AP.

Germanotta-Mills was also charged with allegedly disseminating and possessing bestiality material, NSW Police said in the statement.

The arrests came after a lengthy investigation by detectives working in what NSW Police call Strike Force Constantine, which has been looking into the online distribution of encrypted child sexual abuse material involving ritualistic and satanic themes, per the statement.

During the investigation, the task force “uncovered a Sydney-based pedophile network actively involved in possessing, distributing, and facilitating this material through a website administered internationally,” the statement alleges.

“There’s no run-of-the-mill child abuse, it’s all abhorrent child abuse,” Det. Supt. Jayne Doherty told reporters on Monday, the AP reports.

“But these,” she continued, “were particularly devastating in that they use symbols and rituals around … their discussions that they were having about abusing children. It had a very ritualistic overview.”

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“Police will allege in court that this international group were engaging in conversations and the sharing of material which depicted child abuse and the torture of children involving symbols and rituals linked to Satanism and the occult,” Doherty said.

Legal Aid NSW, which is representing Germanotta-Mills wrote in an email to PEOPLE, “We are unable to comment on individual cases.”

Julian Balloot, the lawyer who represented the other three defendants last week, did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s requests for comment.

All four are being held without bail and are scheduled to appear in court in January.

If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual abuse, text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.