Four people have been charged with kidnapping a medical marijuana dealer and cutting off his penis, in an attempt to make him reveal where he had hidden large sums of cash.
The unnamed victim was the owner of a lucrative cannabis dispensary in California, where the drug is legal for medicinal purposes.
He survived the kidnapping and mutilation, but was hospitalised for an extensive period of time, and the suspects who attacked him fled with his severed penis so that it could never be reattached.
Ryan Anthony Kevorkian, 34, Naomi Josette Kevorkian, 33, Hossein Nayeri, 34, and Kyle Shirakawa Handley, 34, have all been charged with kidnapping, aggravated mayhem, torture and burglary. If convicted, they face life in prison.
Police say the kidnapping plot was hatched after the victim took several of his cannabis suppliers, including Handley, on an expensive trip to Las Vegas.
Handley is accused of telling his co-defendants the victim was very wealthy, prompting them to devise a plan to abduct and rob him.
They are alleged to have carried out weeks of video surveillance, following the victim as he took trips into the Mojave Desert to discuss a possible investment deal, and incorrectly assuming he was burying large amounts of cash there.
On October 2 last year, the plot came to a head when the three male defendants are said to have crept into the victim's home and kidnapped him and his girlfriend.
They are then alleged to have repeatedly tortured him by burning him with a blowtorch, before cutting off his penis and pouring bleach over him in an attempt to destroy any DNA evidence.
Both the victim and his girlfriend - who was unharmed - were then dumped at the side of the road.
Naomi Kevorkian was not there during the kidnapping, but is alleged to have helped plan the abduction and torture.
