(WWJ) A young man from Macomb County is facing federal charges in a disturbing case involving animal abuse and child pornography.
Jolyan Raeed Zahrah, 18, is accused of using multiple accounts on the website Discord to the distribute the horrific and explicit content.
An investigation began when the National Center for Missing and Endangered Children (NCMEC) reported to the FBI about a tip that a Discord user uploaded a file categorized as child pornography to the social media platform on Jan. 3 of this year.
In April, FBI agents executed a search warrant at a home in Macomb County that was under the IP address associated with the Discord accounts and Zahrah’s phone was seized.
Federal court documents show the teen allegedly possessed and shared child sexually abusive material, as well as graphic videos of live animals being tortured in extreme ways. The documents allege Zahrah numerous media files of such content, including video of a live adult dog being held by the scruff of the neck to a blowtorch, a dog being hit in the head with a shovel, and photos of a man sexually abusing a puppy, and a turtle, among other things.
The feds said Zahrah has upwards of a dozen different Discord accounts and so far, they've only investigated two of them.
It's alleged that the defendant is associated with "764", one of several Nihilistic Violent Extremists (NVEs) whose members work in concert
with one another towards a common purpose of destroying civilized society through the corruption and exploitation of vulnerable populations, including minors. In interviews, it's alleged Zahrah described 764-related activities as getting young girls to cut themselves and described seeing an image of "764" cut onto someone's arm. He also acknowledged that he knew there were "things with children," blood, and satanism, and added that he knows 764
tells people to kill their pets and do sexually explicit things in order to
control a person, the documents state.
Zahrah was ordered held without bond.
His next court appearance is a preliminary exam set for June 30.