A Cincinnati man will spend nine years in federal prison after pleading guilty to creating and distributing videos depicting the torture and sexual abuse of monkeys, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday, July 21.

Nicholas T. Dryden was sentenced to 108 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Federal prosecutors said Dryden paid a minor in Indonesia in 2023 to produce videos showing baby and adolescent monkeys being tortured in multiple ways, including having their genitals burned and cut off. He then sold the footage through online groups he administered.

"This sadistic and obscene conduct is unacceptable in any civilized society and Dryden will rightfully spend time in prison for his actions," U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio Dominick S. Gerace II said in a statement.

Dryden pleaded guilty to creating "animal crush videos" and conspiring to distribute them, according to court documents. The federal Animal Crush Video Prohibition Act of 2010 criminalizes the creation, sale, and marketing of videos depicting cruelty to animals. A single count under the statute carries a maximum of seven years in prison; the DOJ did not specify how many counts Dryden pleaded to.

The 108-month sentence is notably longer than prior federal cases under the same law. In the first successful prosecution under the 2010 statute, a Houston man received 57 months in 2016, according to the FBI.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the FBI investigated the case. Assistant Director Doug Ault of the Fish and Wildlife Service's Office of Law Enforcement called it "an extraordinarily disturbing and heinous case of animal cruelty."

Senior Trial Attorney Adam C. Cullman of the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division prosecuted the case, with assistance from former Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Oakley for the Southern District of Ohio.

Anyone with information about animal cruelty or illegal wildlife trafficking can contact the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service tip line at 1-844-FWS-TIPS (1-844-397-8477).