A 61-year-old Bloomington man who funded videos of monkeys being tortured and killed in Indonesia and then shared them with others online has pleaded guilty in federal court to a charge of conspiracy to create and distribute videos of animal cruelty. Federal prosecutors said Jeffrey Radtke and his co-conspirators used an encrypted online messaging platform to fund videos depicting “the torture, murder, and sexually sadistic mutilation of animals, specifically, juvenile and adult monkeys.” Radtke and others routinely communicated with a co-conspirator in Indonesia to fund and instruct how to carry out the videos, according to a criminal complaint filed in August in U.S. District Court in Norfolk, Va. Between June 2021 and July 2022, Radtke received over 20 electronic payments ranging from $1 to $300 from his co-conspirators to fund payments to videographers in Indonesia. He then sent more than 40 payments ranging from $25 to $295 to the Indonesian co-conspirator to create videos and send them back. Law enforcement seized Radtke’s electronic devices in April of last year and his computer contained over 2,600 videos and 2,700 images depicting animal torture, the complaint said. One video that Radtke commissioned involved hanging a monkey by its arms, with a rock tied to its legs. The abuser then pulled out the monkey’s teeth with pliers and beat it with a stick. Once the monkey was cut down, its throat was slashed and tail cut off. Radtke was charged in August under the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act, which makes it illegal to create or distribute depictions of “animal crushing,” defined as burning, suffocating, impaling or causing the serious bodily injury of animals. He pleaded guilty last month and is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 13. He faces up to five years in prison. Radtke is among about a dozen people prosecuted in the U.S. and U.K. over the past year for their roles in a monkey torture ring out of Indonesia. They include Kenneth Herrera, a western Wisconsin pharmacist, who was sentenced to a year in prison in December for creating, selling and distributing an animal crushing video. Several Indonesian suspects have also been charged. An investigation by the animal protection nonprofits Action for Primates and Lady Freethinker uncovered in 2021 an online group that was set up by an Ohio man and others and worked with people in Indonesia to facilitate monkey torture videos. “The level of cruelty inflicted on these helpless infant monkeys is horrifying and inexcusable,” said Nina Jackel, founder of Los Angeles-based Lady Freethinker, which issued a statement following Radtke’s Sept. 24 guilty plea. “I applaud all of the recent actions by law enforcement and hope to see additional prosecutions soon.” Related Articles Crime & Public Safety | Pennsylvania Republican in key swing-state Senate race backs using military to fight fentanyl Crime & Public Safety | Eagan woman latest to plead guilty in Feeding Our Future fraud scheme Crime & Public Safety | ‘Why did you shoot me?’: Body cam video released in Lowertown homicide suspect’s shooting Crime & Public Safety | 40 domestic violence-related homicides in Minnesota last year are most on record, report shows Crime & Public Safety | How St. Paul police found the killer of Lowertown artist and grandmother