Coral Gables Man Gets 60 Months for Distributing Monkey Sexual Torture Videos

MIAMI — Francisco Javier Ravelo, of Coral Gables, was sentenced June 1 to 60 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release for distributing videos depicting extreme sexual violence and mutilation of baby monkeys.

Ravelo participated in online groups dedicated to creating and exchanging the material in violation of the Animal Crushing statute, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. As a condition of supervised release he is prohibited from any unsupervised contact with animals.

The case forms part of federal enforcement against networks that produce and distribute crush videos. The statute criminalizes the creation, sale, and distribution of material showing live animals subjected to serious bodily injury, including sexual abuse, when done for commercial or interstate commerce purposes.

Ravelo’s 60-month term is the penalty imposed after his guilty plea in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

The conviction triggers immediate incarceration and sets a precedent for sentencing in similar online-distribution cases. Upon release, Ravelo must comply with the animal-contact ban, which expands the operational reach of post-conviction supervision in animal-cruelty prosecutions.

Federal prosecutors must now allocate resources to monitor compliance for the three-year term, while the ruling provides courts with a concrete 60-month benchmark for future Animal Crushing statute cases involving primate victims.

This sentencing follows a series of federal actions against operators of monkey torture networks. The Animal Crushing statute was enacted in 2010 and amended in 2019 to close loopholes around interstate distribution. The Department of Justice has pursued multiple similar prosecutions in the Southern District of Florida and elsewhere targeting online communities that specialize in graphic abuse of small primates.

Primary sources: U.S. Department of Justice