Four people connected to an online neo-Nazi group have been charged with producing child sexual abuse material following an investigation involving the Iowa State University Police Department (ISUPD) and numerous local, state, federal and international agencies.

The federal indictment alleges the four members coerced at least 16 minors worldwide to produce child sexual abuse material and images of self-harm.

“None of this is possible without our victim who came forward, our Iowa state student,” ISUPD Chief Michael Newton told the Daily. “Her courage and bravery is the only reason they were able to get the fourth suspect.”

According to a press release from the Department of Justice, Clint Jordan Lopaka Nahooikaika Borge, 41, of Pahoa, Hawaii, and Colin John Thomas Walker, 23, of Bridgeton, New Jersey, were arrested and charged with engaging in child exploitation enterprise on Jan. 30.

Two other members are facing the same charge and are already incarcerated. Rohan Sandeep Rane, 38, of Antibes, France, has been in French custody since 2022 for several child exploitation and related offenses. Kaleb Christopher Merritt, 24, of Spring, Texas, is in Virginia state custody serving a 50-year sentence for sex abuse crimes in 2020 and 2021.

The four were members of CVLT, pronounced like “cult,” which is “an online group that espoused neo-Nazism, nihilism and pedophilia as its core principles,” according to the release.

Report led ISUPD across the country

In November 2020, an Iowa State student called ISUPD to report online coercion and abuse by an individual they met online in 2018. Two months later, the officer initially tasked with the report approached ISUPD Officer Kami Feld with the case, which had hit a dead end.

After reviewing information from electric service providers, interviews and a subpoena, Feld honed in on an online payment system.

“People put fake information out all the time, right, but I knew if money was exchanged, there has to be some form of legitimate information,” Feld told the Daily.

Feld then discovered that several businesses were tied to an address in Hawaii that did not exist. She flew to the Aloha State in August 2021 to interview Borge with investigators and executed a search warrant on his residence, according to a news release.

Before Feld’s work began, the Department of Homeland Security, Los Angeles Police Department and San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office (California) were “investigating the ring” and identified three suspects. The agencies were unable to identify a fourth suspect but were aware of the suspect’s IP address.

“Once I had my suspect identified, I started inputting this information into the database to see if there was any open or connected cases,” Feld said. “When I entered one of the known IP addresses, that’s when I became connected with LA.”

Feld said she is still in contact with agents in California, who are “very much pursuing” the case after the “core four” CVLT members were charged.

“[The] Homeland Security investigation is working the core four – the top members,” Feld said. “Some of the splintered groups are being investigated by another federal agency.”

Work with other agencies ‘not like on TV’

ISUPD collaborates with federal partners regularly that — when necessary –provide “every piece of assistance that we need,” according to Newton.

“It’s not like on TV,” Newton said. “You know, if we’re investigating something and we ask for federal assistance, they still let us be in charge. We’re running the show there.”

Feld echoed Newton’s sentiment on the dissimilarities to TV and said that in Hawaii, there were not any federal agents who announced, “This is our jurisdiction, you can go home now.”

“Once we hit down and landed in Hawaii it was just almost surreal,” Feld said. “I would say very, very rewarding. For me personally, it was when I was sitting in the interview with Clint Borge when I didn’t feel an ounce of nervousness, that I knew I was in the right spot at the right time and doing the work I was tested to do.”

In addition to ISUPD, these agencies investigated the case:

• Department of Homeland Security
• Los Angeles Police Department
• San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office
• Henry County Sheriff’s Office (Virginia)
• Police Nationale (France)
• National Crime Agency (United Kingdom)
• New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs
• EUROPOL

Feld appreciated that the DOJ’s press release recognized ISUPD’s work on the investigation.

“When [the agent] sent me the press release and that ‘I couldn’t have done it without you,’ I got the biggest kick out of Iowa State being listed before French National Police, EUROPOL [and] New Zealand – that made me feel good,” Feld said.