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UK authorities said Justin Swaddle, a 20-year-old from Leeds linked to the online collective known as The Com, was sentenced to two years in prison for blackmail, sextortion, and child sexual abuse offences against 117 female victims worldwide. Investigators said Swaddle, who offended while aged 17, used aliases including "Epstein," "Rugen," and "Moscow" on Snapchat, Telegram, and Discord to groom and coerce girls aged 13 to 17 into producing sexual images and videos, and in some cases into acts of self-harm, while threatening to expose them to parents or schools.
The UK National Crime Agency said it took over the investigation in January 2024 and recovered evidence from seized devices showing indecent images of children, extortion, and material depicting victims carving his aliases into their skin. Eight victims were identified in the UK, with additional victims located through cooperation with law enforcement in the United States, Canada, Australia, Norway, and New Zealand. Swaddle pleaded guilty at Leeds Crown Court and was also made subject to a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and placement on the Sex Offenders Register, as authorities highlighted the case as part of wider scrutiny of The Com over sextortion, child exploitation, and related cyber-enabled abuse.
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Leeds Crown Court sentenced Justin Swaddle to two years in prison on 10 August 2026 for child sexual abuse, blackmail, and sextortion-related offences. The court also imposed a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and required him to register on the National Sex Offenders Register.
Justin Swaddle pleaded guilty to multiple child sexual abuse offences and blackmail at Leeds Crown Court on 2 July. The plea covered all offences described in the investigation.
Two alleged 764 leaders, Leonidas Varagiannis and Prasan Nepal, were arrested in April 2025 and accused of operating an international child exploitation ring. The references cite this as part of broader law-enforcement action against The Com ecosystem.
National Crime Agency officers began their investigation into Justin Swaddle in January 2024, taking over the case and later identifying 117 female victims worldwide. The investigation involved cooperation with international law enforcement partners to identify and safeguard victims.
West Yorkshire Police first arrested Justin Swaddle in October 2023 for offences including possession, making, and distribution of indecent images. This preceded the NCA's takeover of the case.
One identified 17-year-old victim said she met Justin Swaddle on Discord in November 2022 before their conversations moved to Snapchat. This is the earliest explicitly dated victim interaction described in the references.
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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
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.”
Jun 29, 2026
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