Police warn of online child exploitation network ‘764' that victimized Vernon girl

Police are warning parents of an online child exploitation network that goes by the name “764.”

Predators befriend children using online messaging and gaming platforms, according to investigators, and coerce them into violent acts.

Back in late 2023 and early 2024, police said the international group victimized a teenage girl in Vernon, which resulted in multiple swatting calls to local schools.

Vernon police officers arrested the then-17-year-old last year and she was charged with conspiracy.

"Around November 2023, we began getting inundated with bomb threats to our local schools. Those soon escalated to (a) combination of bomb and swatting threats. They went to places of worship in town, neighboring towns, and through the course of the investigation we were eventually able to determine a link to the town of Vernon,” said Det. Thomas VanTasel, of the Vernon Police Department. “We had assumed that they were just due to the mere quantity of threats that we were receiving, specifically that there was some type of Vernon connection."

That connection was the teenage girl who lived in town, who police said was a part of “764,” which prosecutors describe as a nihilistic violent extremist network.

“The individual making the threats ... identified themselves as a Rockville High School student,” VanTasel added. “We were able to have conversations with that individual and learn a little bit more about her activities, social media platforms, and gaming platforms such as Roblox and Discourse and that's when we started to learn that this was related to this online ideology ... 764 if you will."

Through a warrant, police obtained photos from the girl’s cell phone showing a naked Barbie doll with “764” written on its head, and more disturbing images.

"So, this group is ... it's all about developing content for themselves, for notoriety purposes online. So, they encourage self-mutilation, they encourage the sharing of pornographic material, fan signing, suicide, animal cruelty, and the more content that one can convince someone to do, the higher their status within the group,” the detective explained. “And I think it's important to note that, when we say the group, it's not necessarily specifically a ‘764’ or an ‘XVN’... there are hundreds of subsets of these groups, hundreds of these actors, and it’s more the ideology behind it that’s what everyone is copying all around the area, all around the world.”

VanTasel said it’s important for parents to monitor their child’s online activity, and be aware of the warning signs, like sudden changes in behavior and appearance, changes in eating or sleeping habits, dropping out of activities, and becoming more isolated and withdrawn.

“This is a brand new and emerging threat. It's important for parents to really be in the know of what their children are doing. What applications they’re using, what gaming platforms,” he said. “They will target anyone. They will target young children, they will target teenagers. They’re looking for vulnerable individuals, a lot of younger girls with prior victimizations. They’ll develop a trust and bond with their victims and that is how they’ll get a lot of their materials, and they’ll essentially brainwash them and then terrorize them.”

Police said this threat is much larger than people realize.

“This is massive. This is absolutely worldwide. The connections to our Vernon case went overseas to Eastern Europe, the United Kingdom. Some of those aspects of the investigation are still continuing, but this is happening in every community in the world there’s no community that’s immune from it,” VanTasel said.

Last month, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Washington D.C. announced they’d arrested two leaders of the group.

Twenty-one-year-old Leonidas Varagiannis, also known as “War,” a U.S. citizen living in Greece, and 20-year-old Prasan Nepal, also known as “Trippy,” of North Carolina, were arrested and charged with operating the international child exploitation enterprise.

While police said the threat to Vernon is over, the larger threat of this group isn’t.

“I’ve heard other professionals describe this as the biggest threat towards western civilization at this point in time,” VanTasel said. “I think this is just … there’s no real organization, it’s massive, and it’s an ideology as opposed to a group carrying out these activities. It’s gonna be very difficult to reign in.”