The Misery Machine - Operation Bada Bing: What The Hell Is Going On In Vermont??

Episode Date: November 21, 2021

This week, Yergy and Drewby discuss Operation Bada Bing, a child exploitation bust in Vermont that netted 8 local men - but what the police found on a nurse's computer shocked even the most seasoned authorities and launched an international manhunt. To report online exploitation of children, use the electronic Cyber Tip Line at https://report.cybertip.org/ or call 1-800-843-5678 A very special thank you to Levi for supporting our show as our highest tier patron! Levi's Fundraising Page: https://gofund.me/6b9e4f07 Support Our Patreon For More Unreleased Content: https://www.patreon.com/themiserymachine Buy Us A Coffee! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/miserymachine Join Our Facebook Group to Request a Topic: https://t.co/DeSZIIMgXs?amp=1 PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/themiserymachine Instagram: miserymachinepodcast Twitter: misery_podcast Discord: https://discord.gg/kCCzjZM #themiserymachine #podcast #truecrime Source Material: https://www.corrections1.com/arrests-and-sentencing/articles/vt-sex-offender-who-sparked-sentence-debate-freed-comCQ2Om6lQkLl5F/ https://www.wcax.com/content/news/8-Vermont-men-face-child-porn-charges-in-Operation-Bada-Bing-510572911.html https://www.wcax.com/content/news/Vt-man-whose-child-sex-sentence-caused-uproar-faces-porn-charge-509919131.html https://vtcynic.com/news/former-uvm-student-pleads-guilty-to-murder-for-hire-and-other-charges/ https://www.wcax.com/2020/09/15/2-men-charged-with-murder-for-hire-in-apparent-killing/ https://www.wcax.com/2021/10/14/vermont-man-faces-life-commissioning-torture-videos/ https://www.justice.gov/usao-vt/pr/former-nurse-pleads-guilty-murder-hire-conspiracy-kidnap-and-murder-person-overseas-and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_extradition_treaties https://www.fbi.gov/scams-and-safety/protecting-your-kids https://report.cybertip.org/ https://www.rutlandherald.com/news/klllington-man-gets-6-5-years-for-child-porn-charge/article_f680c262-80f1-511d-ace1-bf4626c48e0e.html https://www.rutlandherald.com/news/local/rutland-man-accused-of-having-child-porn/article_9d133793-6843-5821-b7d8-ec6690f09aab.html https://www.justice.gov/usao-vt/pr/mark-hulett-sentenced-possession-child-pornography  

We normally cover crimes against children that are committed by means of physical violence or neglect, oftentimes committed within the family system. This week we'll be covering a case out of Vermont that encompasses a different kind of evil. Due to the nature of this discussion and how YouTube filters some sensitive topics, some words will be censored, but you shouldn't have any problem understanding what we're referring to. So in mid-May of 2019, a press conference was held to announce that eight Vermont men were arrested in what was being called Operation Bada Bing. That's actually the name of it. The eight men whose ages ranged from 25 to 74 years old were arrested the week of May 13th on charges of possession and promotion of child pornography.

Several agencies, including the crimes against children tasked. force, teamed up to track down the men after receiving cyber tips alerting them to criminal activity on their electronics. Half of the men were charged by the state. The other half were being charged federally. Those who were arrested were 37-year-old Frank Farley of Rutland, Vermont, 61-year-old Russell Biathro of Killington, 48-year-old Mark Hewlett of Ferrisburg, 19-year-old Uriah Shows of Middlebury, 58-year-old Bernard Tinker of Colchester, 25-year-old Richard Weston,

and 74-year-old Louis Hamlin II, both of Huntington, as well as 35-year-old Sean Fiore, who was a nurse out of Burlington, Vermont, who was about to graduate from the University of Vermont as a nurse practitioner the day he was arrested. Some of those who were arrested weren't strangers to law enforcement.

In January of 2011, Mark Hewlett was released from prison after serving five years for sexually assaulting an eight-year-old girl between 2001 and 2005. Part of the condition of that release was to be monitored with the GPS tracking bracelet until June of 2012. Hewlett was originally sentenced to 60 days to life in prison, which Judge Edward Cashman said was necessary so he could receive treatment, which wasn't actually offered to low-risk offenders behind bars at that time. A public outcry over Hewlett's sentence in 2006 led Vermont to crack down on punishment for crimes of this nature, including new mandatory minimum sentences for some offenders. The changes allowed Hewlett to get treatment in prison, and the judge imposed a three years to life sentence.

Lewis Hamlin II of Huntington is the father of one of the most infamous killers in the state of Vermont. His son, Louis Hamlin III, was sentenced to 45 years to life in prison for the rape, torture, and stabbing of two 12-year-old girls in 1981, one of whom died, the other lived to identify Hamlin as a suspect. Hamlin's accomplice in that attack, Jamie Savage, was 15 years old at the time. Savage served fewer than three years because Vermont law said he could only be tried in juvenile court. Lawmakers went on to pass the toughest juvenile law in the country by lowering the age of minor could be tried as an adult for murder and sexual assault to 10 years old. Russell Biathro of Killington was actually currently on probation for a 2009 conviction in North Carolina for receiving and possessing child pornography. Perhaps the most shocking name on this list is Sean Fiore of Burlington, who was about to become a nurse practitioner.

Instead of vowing to do no harm and swearing to the Hippocratic oath, Fiore did just the opposite, and authorities stated that the images found on his computer were some of the most evil they had ever seen, some of which included babies. Thankfully, it appears that Fiore is about to have the book thrown at him. Fiori pled guilty on October 14, 2021 to murder for hire, conspiracy to kidnap and murder a person overseas, as well as possession of and conspiracy to produce child pornography. He is set to be sentenced on March 1st, 2022.

In his plea agreement with the government, Fiore admitted that in September of 2018, while using the alias Marcus, he had communicated over WhatsApp with co-defendant Morima Escarlitt Vasquez-Flores Venezuela, who was using the alias Johanna. The two discussed Fiore's interest in purchasing a video, from Vasquez Flores depicting the kidnapping and torture of a slave. Vasquez Flores agreed to make the video to Fiore's specifications for $600, which Fiore ultimately

delivered in the form of Amazon gift cards. They discussed that Vasquez Flores was going to use a child to make the video. On October 3, 2018, Vasquez Flores sent Fiore a hyperlink to a video file, depicting utterly sadistic acts on a young boy consistent with Fiore's specifications. Fiore and Vasquez Flores continued to use WhatsApp to discuss Fiore's desire to purchase another video, which showed Vasquez Flores torturing and killing a slave. She would kidnap in her home country of Venezuela. She told Fiore that she intended to kidnap a slave by enticing a man to leave with her from a party with the promise of sex. Fiore sent Vasquez Flores specifications for the type of physical abuse, humiliation, and manner of death he wished to see in the video.

In December of 2018, Fiore agreed to pay Vasquez Flores $4,000 for the second video. In April 2019, Vasquez Flores sent Fiore a hyperlink to a 58-minute video file depicting the requested sadistic abuse and possible death of an adult male. At sentencing, Fury faces up to 20 years imprisonment for murder for hire. He also faces up to life imprisonment for conspiring to kidnap or murder a person in a foreign country, as well as up to 10 years imprisonment for possession of child pornography, and up to 30 years imprisonment, with a mandatory minimum term of 15 years for conspiracy to produce it. It should also be noted that Vermont does not have the death penalty.

The woman who sent fury of the videos was charged with conspiracy to murder, kidnapping of a person in a foreign country, and conspiracy, production of, and aiding and abetting the receipt of child pornography. Vasquez Flores was arrested in Colombia on September 18th, 2020. The United States is seeking her extradition from Colombia to face these charges. The United States has had an extradition treaty with Colombia since 1982. I was actually really surprised that we had a treaty with them. So one thing that I will caution you, and I don't really like the... term trigger warning, content warning, but it's kind of a big thing, especially for me,

because I happened upon something that I didn't need to see that's going to be burned into my memory. And I don't want any of you to have to see it. And I was surprised it came up for you. Yeah. So please, under no circumstances, start going and Googling any information about Ms. Vasquez Flores. Because I didn't know this until I started looking up pictures to then input into Canada. to put into slides for YouTube. It wasn't just men and children she was harming. She was killing animals in horrific ways and making videos of those as well. There are stills of it in Google images without having to even look very far.

It is graphic. You don't want to see it. This is going to be burned into my memory. It's hard to think when you're so focused on what she's done to adults and children. you don't think that, oh, if she'd do this for money, then clearly animals must be fair game. Yeah, and I know there's going off in the comment section about the fact that her hurting animals affects me a bit more than the idea that she hurts children and humans. But I'm sorry, this is just what triggers me more. Also, the difference is that I saw pictures.

Those pictures of the animal abuse is online, whereas you can't find the ones on the snuff films that we've hired. highlighted in this episode. So. And this whole thing's just a lot to unpack. It's a lot to unpack. There's not a lot of opportunities in developing countries. So people are going to do a lot of different things to make a buck. And if she's going to make more money than she can in years doing things like that, I'm not saying I agree with it. I can't see even I can empathize or anything. But I get why she's doing it. And it doesn't make it okay. It's disgusting. But I hope they throw the book at this woman. But I still think it takes a special type of evil person to do this. like money or not. The thing that I want to kind of call back to is we had someone

mentioned in the comment section. I don't remember what video it was, but they were overseas. I believe it was either in Afghanistan or Iraq. I want to say it was Iraq. And there were kids walking around selling, trying to sell snuff films. It was the same person that said that they were breaking up during some holy days. There would be some really inappropriate things going on. They'd have to break up involving children sometimes. And that's when they'd find these snuff films, like little kids trying to sell them. I mean, the little kids selling them, they're being made to by a adult. They may not even know what's on there.

No, I guarantee they don't. So I think the only reason I'm bringing this up is because the fact that I know someone's going to chime in in the comments about, oh, look at you and your Western privilege, you don't have to do this. You don't have to worry about making a buck in a weird way. It just doesn't make it okay. It doesn't make it okay. It is never okay to torture children and animals and humans or anybody.

It's just not okay. You're never going to convince me otherwise on this. The other seven men arrested and Operation Bada-Bang have already been tried and sentenced with prison terms up to only, only a decade in length. These people are only going to at maximum get 10 years for doing this. So if you feel like a child is in danger, or if you know of an adult that's guilty of the crimes that we've highlighted here, it is your duty as a human being to report it. You can use the electronic cybertip line at report.cybertip.org, which will also have linked.

As well as the hotline number, which is 1-800-843-5678. The cybertip line is operated by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in partnership with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies. So this type of stuff particularly angers me because it's disgusting. Who does this? You have some really, really big problems if you're, you're exploiting children in this way. And it actually has a lot to do with the type of work that I do during my day job.

So, Drewby and I were not full-time YouTube professionals. We'd love to be. But my day job is in an anti-money laundering department for a bank. What does that mean? That's not me trying to go catch some mobsters, you know, racketeering or trying to clean their money through typical means like waste management or gambling or things like that. Yeah, there is cases of that. but mostly what we're looking for is child exploitation, trafficking, drug running, things of that nature.

So where this happens so close to home only a few hours away, it's absolutely disgusting. A lot of folks think that human trafficking just is a myth, and I don't understand that. It's very perplexing to me that people think human trafficking is not something that exists in America. It absolutely exists in America. And on top of this, we are talking about the receipt of something that could be a snuff film. Now, they weren't able to confirm, as of the date of this recording, if the man who was tortured on that video was killed or not. But he could have been. And if he was, that is 100% a snuff film.

And even if you think that this case doesn't qualify, there are many, many examples of snuff films being commissioned to be made for money. and people think that this doesn't go on in the world. I just don't understand it. It's like people want to pretend these horrific things don't exist, and I can understand why some of you don't want to do that. But in pretending these things don't exist, some of our most vulnerable people in this country or in this world are at risk for being preyed upon by these practices.

So probably one of the most famous cases is that of, Australian man Peter Scully. He was made famous for the film Daisy's Destruction, where he did some of these inspeakable acts to an 11-year-old girl, and she was possibly murdered as well. He and an accomplice, a Filipino woman, are both serving life in prison for this. This is probably one of the most famous examples, and this was so heinous that it was considered an urban legend. Some people thought it was a hoax. some people didn't think this actually happened. It wasn't until somewhat recently that it was discovered, proven to be real, and Peter Scaldi was thankfully brought to justice.

I do believe the bodies of the children were found in their yard. There are people over the lifetime of this podcast who have requested that we do a case on Daisy's destruction. And I just don't think it's possible because even Googling that or doing any research on that is very, difficult because it's not something you want to Google. You know what I mean? Yeah, I felt very weird just like looking up the information that I did right now. And it wasn't until Peter Scully was arrested where it was a little bit safer because you could just Google Peter Scully and there was some stuff on that. But I don't think there's a whole lot further we can do on looking into that case. But it's important that you're familiar that a person like that exists and that he was able to operate for as long as he did. I can't remember how many years, but he was doing this for a very, very long time. And allegedly selling to high profile clients, this absolutely exists. What we've just highlighted in Vermont today is just a very small portion of this. I have to stress that the biggest disservice we can do to these children and these people that get trafficked is to pretend it doesn't exist and talk about it like it doesn't exist. I think it's a very easy,

easy thing that all of us can do is to start addressing this and looking at this as something that absolutely exists and is a very serious problem. Another thing that you can do to help out is to share this video with people that you feel like would appreciate it for two reasons. One, to get the word out about things like this, that they absolutely happen and they happen in rural places too, as well as the fact that, as you know, if you've been listening to this channel for a while, that YouTube tends to hide content like this. So by sharing it, you help take a grassroots approach to get this out there. As always, hitting like and subscribe is a great way to help us grow and to keep us going.

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So we want to also give a special shout out to Blue Unicorn. We received this lovely box full of gemstones and fossils and shells and just wonderful things today. It was awesome. Thank you so much, Blue Unicorn. If you are not subscribed to Blue Unicorn on YouTube, you should absolutely do that as he makes very good videos and music covers. Absolutely. And I'm going to, if you're watching this on YouTube, I'm going to put a picture of Callie trying to steal our treasure. But until next week, we love you.

We love you. Bye. Bye.