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A Europol-coordinated law enforcement effort dubbed Project Compass has led to the arrest of 30 suspected members of “The Com,” a decentralized, largely Western, youth-driven cybercrime ecosystem linked to hacking, sextortion, and related physical harm targeting minors and other vulnerable individuals. Europol said 28 countries participated, and authorities have fully or partially identified 179 perpetrators, with the operation framed as an attempt to disrupt violent online extremism that can function like an “online cult community” recruiting offenders and victims.
The reporting also notes law enforcement focus on spinoff groups such as “764,” which the U.S. Department of Justice has described as a “nihilistic violent extremist group.” Separately, U.S. officials described ongoing efforts against Southeast Asian scam compounds conducting pig-butchering and other cryptocurrency investment fraud and laundering at scale; while related to transnational cyber-enabled crime, that activity is a different enforcement and threat topic than Project Compass and “The Com.”
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On February 26, 2026, Europol announced first operational results from Project Compass after a year of work against The Com. Authorities reported 30 arrests, 179 perpetrators fully or partially identified, 62 victims identified, four victims safeguarded, and joint awareness-raising activity across participating countries.
Europol later linked The Com to high-profile cyberattacks against UK retailers in April 2025. The incidents were cited as evidence that the ecosystem spans both child exploitation and major corporate intrusions.
In April 2025, two alleged 764 leaders, Leonidas Varagiannis and Prasan Nepal, were arrested and charged with operating an international child exploitation ring involving child sexual abuse material distribution. Reporting said they faced potential life sentences.
In March 2025, the FBI warned that Com-linked offenders were coercing victims, sometimes as young as nine, into producing or livestreaming self-harm, animal cruelty, sexual content, and suicide-related acts. The alert highlighted the severe child exploitation dimension of the network.
A 19-year-old, Alexis Aldair Chavez, pleaded guilty in the United States to racketeering and child pornography charges tied to leadership of the 764-linked '8884' network. He was reported to face up to 60 years in prison.
Europol's European Counter Terrorism Centre launched Project Compass in January 2025 as a multinational effort to investigate and disrupt The Com. The initiative brought together authorities from 28 countries to improve intelligence sharing, prevention, and coordinated investigations.
U.S. authorities arrested and charged alleged members of The Com in 2024, according to later reporting. The action did not appear to significantly slow the broader network's activity.
The Com was later linked by Europol reporting to breaches affecting Las Vegas casinos in September 2023. The incident was cited as an example of the network's connection to major cyber intrusions.
The Com offshoot known as 764 first emerged in 2021 and became associated with grooming minors into producing explicit material for blackmail and distribution. Later reporting described it as one of the violent extremist-linked subgroups pursued by investigators.
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Europol said investigators from nine European countries flagged **4,340 URLs** for removal during Referral Action Days aimed at disrupting **The Com**, a decentralized online network tied to nihilistic violent extremism. The operation, organized by Europol’s **EU Internet Referral Unit** and Spain’s **CITCO**, targeted content spread across social media, messaging apps, and gaming platforms that promoted self-harm, suicide, child sexual abuse material, animal cruelty, violent attacks, and guides for grooming, murder, improvised explosives, doxing, and swatting. Authorities said The Com recruits and grooms young people online, often coercing minors through sextortion and pushing them toward both victimization and offending. Europol linked the action to its broader **Project COMPASS** effort, which had already produced arrests, identified suspects, and located victims, and noted that subgroups associated with the network include **764**. That subgroup drew earlier law-enforcement attention after U.S. prosecutors charged alleged leaders of 764 with operating a global child exploitation enterprise, underscoring how extremist online communities are overlapping with organized child abuse and coercion networks.
Jul 31, 2026
U.S. and European authorities are intensifying efforts against **The Com**, a sprawling, youth-driven ecosystem associated with cyber-enabled extortion, harassment, and offline violence. Europol-coordinated **Project Compass**, supported by 28 countries (including the Five Eyes), reported **30 arrests**, the full or partial identification of **179 perpetrators**, the safeguarding of **four victims**, and the identification of up to **62 victims**; officials described The Com as splintered into **Hacker Com**, **In Real Life Com**, and **Extortion Com**, with members using identity obfuscation and financial laundering to evade detection. Separate reporting highlighted the **764 network** as a decentralized online threat linked to the **grooming and coercion of minors** via trust-based manipulation across mainstream platforms, aligning with recent U.S. federal law-enforcement warnings about structured grooming “architectures” and targeting patterns. While 764 and The Com are not presented as the same organization, both references describe overlapping risk themes—online communities that deliberately target minors, blend digital coercion with real-world harm, and create downstream organizational risk through victimization, extortion, and exploitation that can spill into schools, families, and workplaces.
Jun 29, 2026
The FBI and IC3 warned that **nihilistic violent extremist networks** and broader communities known as **"The Com"** are targeting children and other vulnerable people online through extortion, coercion, stalking, and abuse. Federal notices said the groups operate across social media, messaging apps, gaming platforms, and other online services, using threats, manipulation, and criminal tradecraft to pressure victims into self-harm, sexual exploitation, violence, and other dangerous acts in the United States and abroad. Reporting and law-enforcement disclosures tied those networks to a wider cybercrime ecosystem that overlaps with groups linked to major intrusions, SIM swapping, credential theft, doxing, swatting, sextortion, and ransomware activity. CyberScoop reported federal investigators were probing **764** and related actors for using cybercriminal methods to facilitate violent crimes, while KrebsOnSecurity described connections among harm groups, **Scattered Spider**, **LAPSUS$**, and other actors associated with breaches and abuse campaigns. Separate FBI outreach on malware hidden in games hosted on **Steam** underscored how gaming platforms are also being used to reach and victimize users, especially younger targets.
Jun 29, 2026