FBI is actively investigating more than 350 individuals linked to the decentralized online extremist group known as “764”

The FBI has confirmed it is actively investigating more than 350 individuals linked to the decentralized online extremist group known as “764,” a sharp increase from the 250 cases reported just seven months ago. Senior officials, including FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino, described the network tonight as “one of the most depraved and dangerous threats facing American children today – modern-day terrorism happening in bedrooms across the country.”

In an urgent press conference this evening, Deputy Director Bongino revealed that every single one of the FBI’s 56 field offices now has open 764-related cases. “This is not a fringe chat room anymore. This is an international criminal enterprise that blackmails, tortures, and drives children to suicide for likes, status, and crypto tips,” Bongino said. “We have linked this network to multiple completed suicides, school shootings, stabbings, and animal killings. We will not stop until every last member is in cuffs.”

The “764” network – named after the Texas ZIP code of its teenage founder Bradley Cadenhead – began in 2021 as an offshoot of the “CVLT” and “Greggy’s Cult” sextortion rings. It has since morphed into a global web of Discord servers, Telegram channels, Roblox games, and private Minecraft realms where predators, many of them minors themselves, systematically groom vulnerable children as young as nine.

Victims are coerced into producing child sexual abuse material, carving the usernames of their abusers into their skin (“cut signs”), killing pets on livestream, and, in the most extreme cases, attempting or completing suicide – all while the videos are traded like trophies inside the group.

Newly unsealed court documents and FBI data released today show the scale of the crisis:

• Over 2,000 reports to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) in the first nine months of 2025 alone – double the entire total for 2024.
• More than 6,000 identified victims nationwide, with thousands more believed to be suffering in silence.
• At least 50 arrests in the United States this year, plus dozens more in Europe, Canada, Australia, and Asia.
• Direct ties to the 2025 Antioch High School shooting in Tennessee and multiple foiled mass-casualty plots.

Just this week, federal grand juries returned indictments against five new defendants, including a former U.S. Navy sailor accused of running a “Greggy’s Cult” splinter cell that targeted military dependents. In Maryland, 22-year-old Erik Lee Madison was charged with using Roblox to extort girls as young as 13. In Arizona, a 19-year-old allegedly forced nine victims aged 11–15 to abuse animals and swear allegiance to ISIS on camera.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are responding. A bipartisan bill called the ECCHO Act – which would create a new federal crime of coercing self-harm or suicide with a maximum penalty of life in prison – cleared a key Senate committee today and is expected to reach the floor before Christmas.

Director Patel closed tonight’s briefing with a direct plea to parents: “Check your kids’ phones, tablets, gaming consoles – tonight. Look for Discord, Telegram, Roblox private servers, words like ‘764,’ ‘Court,’ ‘Harm Nation,’ or ‘No Lives Matter.’ If you see anything that doesn’t feel right, call us immediately at 1-800-CALL-FBI or submit a tip at tips.fbi.gov. One tip can save a child’s life.”

The FBI says the investigation is expanding daily and warned that the true number of suspects and victims is almost certainly far higher than current figures. “This network thrives on secrecy and shame,” Bongino said. “We are ripping that veil away, one monster at a time.”