Federal authorities are sounding the alarm about a violent online network known as “764,” which has been linked to child exploitation, digital coercion, and self-harm among minors across the country. While the Turlock Unified School District issued a warning this week after a local student was reportedly affected, Westside districts have yet to publicly address the threat.
As of press time, the Newman-Crows Landing and Gustine Unified School Districts had not released any statements regarding the group or its tactics.
According to the Turlock Police Department, the group tricks, coerces and otherwise encourages kids to engage in sex acts, harm animals, mutilate and even kill themselves through video games and social media. The group targets vulnerable children and befriends them through popular multiplayer games such as Roblox and Minecraft. They then may move communication to apps like Discord, WhatsApp or Telegram.
If kids don’t comply with their requests, the group threatens harm to their families, shares their explicit photos on the internet and makes fake 911 calls to send law enforcement to their homes.
In April, the FBI arrested two leaders of the global child exploitation enterprise — Leonidas Varagiannis, also known as “War,” 21, a citizen of the United States residing in Thessaloniki, Greece, and Prasan Nepal, also known as “Trippy,” 20, of North Carolina.
According to the affidavit filed in the District of Columbia, 764 is a network of nihilistic violent extremists who engage in criminal conduct in the United States and abroad, seeking to destroy civilized society through the corruption and exploitation of vulnerable populations, which often include minors. The network’s accelerationist goals include social unrest and the downfall of the current world order, including the United States government.
As alleged, the defendants engaged in a coordinated criminal enterprise and led a core subgroup within 764 known as 764 Inferno, operated through encrypted messaging applications. They directed, participated in, and otherwise caused the production and distribution of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and facilitated the grooming, manipulation and extortion of minors.
The defendants and their co-conspirators around the world used CSAM and other gore and violent material to create digital “Lorebooks,” which NVEs used as digital currency within the 764 network — traded, archived in encrypted “vaults,” and used as a means to recruit new members or maintain status within the network. The affidavit also details how the defendants instructed other members in grooming tactics and set content production expectations for new recruits.
“These defendants are accused of orchestrating one of the most heinous online child exploitation enterprises we have ever encountered – a network built on terror, abuse, and the deliberate targeting of children,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi in April. “We will find those who exploit and abuse children, prosecute them, and dismantle every part of their operation.”
In August, FBI officials arrested a Southern California man suspected to be a member of 764 for possession of child pornography.
Dong Hwan Kim, 27, was taken into custody at his Downey residence by members of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) following the execution of a federal search warrant and was charged in a federal criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.
According to the complaint, several minor females reported that Kim enticed them and other minor females to produce and send him pictures and videos of themselves engaging in sexual acts between 2022 and the present. The minors stated that Kim would then extort his victims by posting or threatening to post the images to their family members and others if they did not comply with his demands to send more.
The complaint alleges that Kim engaged in this conduct as part of his participation in the 764 network, to further its goals of accelerating social unrest and the downfall of the current world order.
The FBI advises parents and guardians to monitor their children's online activities. Talk with them about the risks of sharing information and look for a quick change in personality. Check for signs of self-harm and questionable injuries to pets.
