DOJ arrests 2 men for leading global sextortion, child exploitation ring 764

Two Americans have been taken into custody by the Department of Justice for allegedly helping to lead and operate an international child exploitation network.

Prasan Nepal, 20, as well as Leonidas Varagiannis, 21, are accused of running the organization known as “764." According to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, “764 is a network of online groups that engage in sextortion and the glorification of violence.” Only Nepal's mugshot was immediately available. 

The network allegedly coerced minor victims to produce Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), which was then used to blackmail them into acts of violence, animal abuse, or self-harm. The group is also accused of launching coordinated harassment, swatting, and intimidation campaigns against victims to silence them.

The Justice Department alleges that Nepal, who was arrested in North Carolina, along with an American citizen living in Greece, Varagiannis, led the global child exploitation enterprise and are responsible for exploiting minors as well as orchestrating the creation and distribution of child pornography within the network.

Nepal allegedly operated under multiple aliases, including “Leather Jacket,” “Rebirth,” “KingKrampus,” and was known in the group’s main chat as “Trippy,” according to FOX 8. Varagiannis was known as "War" in the group.

The DOJ complaint added, “The 764 network’s accelerationist goals include social unrest and the downfall of the current world order, including the United States Government.”

“Members of 764 work in concert with one another towards a common purpose of destroying civilized society through the corruption and exploitation of vulnerable populations, including minors,” the DOJ said.

The filing alleges that group members methodically targeted young victims and attempted to “socially engineer them, gain their trust, and then groom them to share private information and intimate visual depictions of themselves engaged in sexually explicit conduct.”

“764 Inferno leadership, including the defendants, conspired with group members to create and distribute images of the exploitation of minors,” the complaint stated. “These images depicted both the sexual exploitation of minors as well as images depicting self-mutilation. The defendants controlled membership in and access to the group. The defendants posted instructions to group members regarding methods they should employ to exploit vulnerable minor children. The defendants also interacted with group members by commenting on the exploitation material they posted. 764 relied on members recruiting other members into the group in order to generate additional content, including child exploitation content, that could be distributed in the group.”