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A 17-year-old Maine resident became the first U.S. juvenile federally charged, adjudicated, and detained for delinquent acts tied to the nihilistic violent extremist network known as 764, an online collective affiliated with The Com. The unnamed teen was found to have committed offenses including conspiracy to sexually exploit a child, child sexual exploitation and enticement, child sexual abuse material distribution, interstate threats, cyberstalking, and identity theft; the court ordered official detention followed by juvenile-delinquent supervision.
The FBI said 764 and its offshoots recruit and coerce minors and other vulnerable people into escalating sexual exploitation, self-harm, and violent behavior to foster chaos and social unrest. Federal investigators are pursuing more than 500 subjects nationwide linked to the network, signaling intensified enforcement against online extremist groups that exploit children for criminal activity.
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6 events from the most recent confirmed update back to the earliest known activity.
Earlier in 2026, FBI Boston issued a public-service announcement warning of a sharp increase in extremists targeting children and vulnerable victims online.
Leonidas Varagiannis, Prasan Nepal, Baron Cain Martin, Tony Christopher Long, Erik Lee Madison, Zachary Sweeney, and Aaron Corey were identified as alleged 764 members arrested since 2025.
Alexis Aldair Chavez associated with 764 as a child before later leading the 8884 offshoot.
A 17-year-old Maine resident became the first U.S. juvenile federally charged and adjudicated for delinquent acts connected to nihilistic violent extremist groups in the 764 network. The juvenile was ordered to serve official detention followed by juvenile-delinquent supervision after adjudication for child-exploitation, CSAM-distribution, threat, cyberstalking, identity-theft, and conspiracy offenses.
Kyle William Spitze, described as an original 764 member and leader of an offshoot, received a 77-year federal prison sentence in Tennessee.
Alexis Aldair Chavez, later the leader of the 8884 offshoot, received a 40-year federal prison sentence for blackmailing and coercing multiple girls to self-harm, torture animals, and produce CSAM.
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Tony Christopher Long, a 19-year-old from Porterville, California, has been indicted on multiple federal charges including animal crushing, sexual exploitation of a minor, possession of child sexual abuse material, cyberstalking, and interstate extortion. Prosecutors allege that Long, known online as “Inactive,” “Inactivee0,” and “inactivecvx,” committed these crimes in late 2024, targeting minors in both California and Washington state. The indictment details a two-month period during which Long allegedly cyberstalked and attempted to extort a minor in Kern County, California, sexually exploited a minor in Washington, and possessed explicit material involving the latter victim. Long is accused of being a member of the extremist group “764,” described by authorities as a nihilistic violent extremist network and an offshoot of The Com, a global collective known for financially motivated, sexual, and violent crimes. If convicted on all counts, Long faces up to 69 years in prison and fines totaling $1.25 million, with individual charges carrying significant mandatory minimums and maximum sentences. The case is being investigated by the FBI and the Porterville Police Department, highlighting the intersection of child exploitation and extremist online networks.
Jun 29, 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