On March 22, 2014, in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria, a group of motorcyclists stumbled upon a crumbling structure in the Soka forest while searching for a fellow motorcyclist who had gone missing in the vicinity. Upon discovering the structure, the motorcyclists came across twenty-three individuals who were shackled and in a dire state of malnutrition. An array of body parts, personal possessions, and human remains in differing states of decomposition were uncovered in the surrounding area.

The crimes occurring in the forest are believed to have been orchestrated by an elusive group of ritualists, backed by wealthy Nigerians and politicians who exploit human sacrifices for their dark purposes. Some survivors recounted that the ritualists who abducted them posed as members of the urban renewal initiative run by the Oyo State government. Nevertheless, there seems to be a lack of concrete evidence to substantiate this theory.

Residents in the area have expressed their frustration, revealing that the Oyo State Police have refused to investigate the forest, despite being made aware of numerous abduction reports in the region. Some even asserted they had contacted the authorities after hearing awful screams coming from the forest. Contrary to their assertions, the Oyo State Police displayed a complete lack of interest in probing the whereabouts of those involved in these troubling activities.

In October 2018, an anonymous user on the Russian imageboard site Dvach, akin to 4chan, shared links to two videos on the platform. These videos expose the horrific actions of the Russian neo-Nazi extremist group "Project Sanitater-88," which systematically brutalizes and murders homeless individuals in Moscow with weapons such as blades and hammers. The Germanic term "Sanitäter" translates to "paramedic," a usage that dates back to World War II. Additionally, the number "88" represents the letters "HH," an abbreviation for "Heil Hitler".

The Dvach staff took down the videos, but they were quickly re-uploaded on various other sites, including a page belonging to a neo-Nazi group known as the "White Hunter Society." This group organized a contest where members shared videos of savage attacks. The shocking content not only caught the attention of Russian law enforcement but also intrigued the anonymous users of Dvach. This collective of users managed to trace the uploader back to a seventeen-year-old student from St. Petersburg named Vitaly Tkachenko. Consequently, Vitaly and another teenager of similar age were arrested.

It appears that the videos uploaded by Vitaly were copycats of similar atrocities committed in Moscow a few years prior. Between 2014 and 2015, a group of young neo-Nazis—20-year-old Pavel Voitov, 25-year-old Elena Lobacheva, 23-year-old Artur "Narcis" Narcissov, 19-year-old Maxim "Zakirka" Pavlov, and 21-year-old Vladislav "Persik" Karataev—embarked on a violent crime spree. Infamously dubbed "The Cleaners," this group of young militants was responsible for the brutal murders of over 15 individuals. Fueled by a twisted desire to "purify the city," their atrocious actions were rooted in a profound disdain for alcoholics and the homeless.

The victims, many of whom were intoxicated, homeless, or migrant workers, were enticed to remote locations, predominantly at night, where they endured brutal assaults with hammers before being ruthlessly stabbed to death. Faced with scant physical or digital evidence, authorities suspected a connection between the murders and chose to merge the cases into a unified investigation. Both the police and the FSB began tracking cellular activity in the vicinity of the crime scenes. Armed with this critical lead, they launched an intense manhunt.

On February 15, 2015, Pavel Voitov and Artur Narcissov launched an assault on a janitor in Vykhino. However, the janitor valiantly fought back, prompting the assailants to hastily escape the scene. The janitor then notified the authorities and described the attackers. On February 19, 2015, law enforcement and the FSB successfully captured Pavel Voitov and Elena Lobacheva after identifying their residence via surveillance cameras. The search yielded significant evidence, including five knives, an unregistered firearm, clothing stained with the janitor's blood, and a hammer. Additionally, they discovered Elena's computer, which held disturbing photos of the victims, their bodies gruesomely mutilated, along with a chilling guide detailing methods of murder.

Definitely! I have a cartel case in the works. That’s so true, though. Maybe the level of cruelty is too much for some to write about, or it can be the stress of watching actual videos.

The Chechen Wars were a string of vicious conflicts between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. The brutal conflicts in Chechnya occurred in two stages: the First Chechen War from 1994 to 1996 and the Second Chechen War from 1999 to 2009. These conflicts inflicted profound suffering, leading to significant military and civilian casualties, widespread displacement, and devastating damage to infrastructure in both the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. From 1994 to 2003, as many as 50,000 to 250,000 civilians were killed in the combined Chechen wars, along with thousands more deaths of fighters from both sides.

During the Chechen wars, technology enabled the filming of war crimes, leading to the creation of disturbing propaganda, primarily by Chechen rebels. These guerrilla warfare-style fighters employed psychological warfare to strike fear into the hearts of the Russians. One strategy they employed involved filming the executions of captured Russian soldiers and leaving the videotape on the bodies for the enemy to find. Some of these videos were later uploaded to popular sites like Documenting Reality and Rotten, becoming some of the first gore videos available online. One particularly chilling video was the recorded murder of Tatiana Usmanova, which had disappeared for a period but eventually resurfaced on the internet.

32-year-old Tatiana Usmanova and her husband, Hassan Edilgireev, lived in the Andreevskaya Dolina village in the Zavodsky district of Grozny. On the evening of October 1st, 2001, Tatiana, Hassan, and their friend Elena Petrovna Gaevskaya were forcibly taken from their home by a group of five pro-Chechen militants. According to sources, Chechen militants accused Tatiana of collaborating with local police or other agencies. Tatiana was murdered on camera in front of Hassan, while Elena was shot to death off camera. Hassan was tortured by the rebels; however, they allowed him to live because he was of Chechen descent. All of the killers, except for the cameraman, were around 18 years of age.

‣ The video capturing Tatiana's execution lasts 17 minutes and 55 seconds, filmed by a cameraman using a night-vision filter in a dimly lit basement. As the video begins, the scene unfolds with a battered Tatiana sitting on the dirt floor next to Hassan. During the first two minutes, she endures relentless interrogation, punctuated by occasional strikes from a flexible rod. Despite enduring significant abuse, Tatiana maintained an impressive level of composure throughout her interrogation by the rebels. ‣ From 2:30 to 3:50, one of the captors is seen digging a shallow pit for blood to flow into. The camera shifts focus to Tatiana, capturing her face etched with sheer despondency, as it becomes apparent that she sees no escape from her predicament. At approximately 4:58, she started to panic, desperately pleading for her life as they restrained her hands with tape. The scene transitions to Hassan, who is having tape carefully applied over his mouth. It then cuts back to Tatiana, now lying on the ground, her mouth tightly sealed.

‣ A rebel holds a combat knife against her throat, not to slice, but to gauge the location of the impending cut. At 6:25, a rebel carefully cuts the tape from Tatiana's mouth, prompting her to murmur to him. Yet, the meaning of her words continues to elude understanding. From 8:30 to 9:20, Tatiana’s mouth is retaped as the rebels ready themselves for the execution.

‣ By 9:20, the militants placed Tatiana on her side by the hole. One holds her head back to expose her neck, while the other begins to sever her throat. A faint squeal leaves Tatiana's mouth as her throat is carved wide open, and her blood streams into the hole. The killers also took turns lacerating and holding her down against the dirt until she was finally decapitated. At 9:49, the footage transitions to a black screen, yet the voices of the rebels can be heard conversing among themselves for approximately a minute. This is followed by a shift to Hassan at 11:06.

‣ Hassan's head was covered in lumps and lacerations, indicating that the killers had badly beaten him. At 11:26, the cameraman walks around Tatiana's beheaded corpse as he laughs. One of the killers can be seen at 12:04 boasting with Tatiana's head in his hand before placing it on the floor. The final moments of the footage reveal the assailants interrogating Hassan, who is clearly in shock from the horrific scenes he has just witnessed involving his wife. The video ultimately fades to black.

The footage of Tatiana's execution only became public in 2004, after the Grozny police acquired the tape, prompting an independent investigation into those responsible for her murder. While everyone who participated was eventually identified, most were already dead. The killers were identified as Islam Chalayev (killed during an FSB mission in April 2002), Khamzat Tazabaev (killed during an FSB mission in February 2004), Adlan Barayev (killed during a special operation in 2004) Arbi Khaskhanov (Official status is unknown; may still be alive) and Ilyas Dashaev (already serving time in prison for past crimes).

Soon.