Child Predator Cults Tied To 450 People In Growing FBI Crackdown

FBI investigations of a heinous online child predator network have expanded to target more than 450 people, the bureau said on Tuesday. Officials continue to crack down on groups going by names such as “764” that lure…

Daily Caller News Foundation StaffMay 14, 20263 min read

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FBI investigations of a heinous online child predator network have expanded to target more than 450 people, the bureau said on Tuesday.

Officials continue to crack down on groups going by names such as “764” that lure children into violent online communities and induce them toward self-harm or sexual acts, FBI Dallas Special Agent in Charge Joe Rothrock said in a statement warning parents and schoolteachers. Authorities have traced similar groups’ beginnings to at least 2019, announcing more than 350 subjects of investigations by late last year.

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“Their members often connect with minors on popular online gaming and social media platforms, build their trust by posing as friends, and then coerce them into harming themselves or others,” Rothrock said of the predators.

The growing federal crackdown on 764-style networks spans multiple presidencies and now involves all 56 FBI field offices, according to authorities. The Trump administration has increasingly

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described them

with the new

label

“Nihilistic Violent Extremists,” criminals who seek to cause harm “primarily from a hatred of society at large and a desire to bring about its collapse by sowing indiscriminate chaos, destruction, and social instability.”

Groups fitting that description also promote violence beyond sexual exploitation, including school shootings and political assassinations, and embrace Satanic or Nazi symbolism, Daily Caller News Foundation reporting shows.

“Some are driven by hatred, sexual gratification, or a desire for chaos. Regardless of their motivation, they have a common target: children and other at-risk individuals,” Rothrock said.

Rothrock highlighted his office’s ongoing manhunt for Austin Jan Sy Yatco, a Filipino man with Texas ties who “is accused of exploiting minors into creating child pornography of themselves, which he then distributed among a violent online network similar to 764.” Yatco’s alleged accomplices found their victims on gaming and social media platforms, according to the FBI. The bureau is offering $25,000 for incriminating information on Yatco, whom officials believe is hiding in the Philippines.

“We have worked with federal prosecutors who successfully prosecuted these predators and are tirelessly working to investigate others,” Rothrock said.

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U.S. senators also unveiled bipartisan legislation in December — now sitting in the Senate Judiciary Committee — that would specifically criminalize “coercion of children to commit harm” separately from child exploitation offenses already on the books.

Rothrock warned parents to “monitor your children’s online activities” to prevent victimization and avoid posting “personal information or family videos or photos online, which could be exploited.”

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