{"id":12280,"date":"2026-06-22T20:33:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T17:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=12280"},"modified":"2026-06-22T20:33:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T17:33:00","slug":"how-the-shadowy-764-network-recruits-minors-in-greece-the-u-s-warning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=12280","title":{"rendered":"How the Shadowy \u201c764\u201d Network Recruits Minors in Greece \u2014 The U.S. Warning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Greeks <\/b>are among the individuals against whom the U.S. authorities<\/b> have brought prosecutions<\/b> for the decentralized network of sadistic exploitation of minors “764”<\/b>.<\/p>\n

In organized crime<\/b>, the arrest<\/b> of top executives and the seizure of the funds used to \u201cgrease the wheels\u201d of the criminal rings <\/b>usually neutralize these organizations. The same does not apply to decentralized networks such as \u201c764,\u201d in which members carry out acts that are particularly dangerous to society as a whole without central orders, making the network resemble the \u201cLernaean Hydra.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arrests in Greece for the shadowy \u201c764\u201d network<\/h3>\n

Just last Saturday, two 17-year-old Greek nationals were arrested in Thessaloniki as part of a coordinated operation, after charges of child pornography had been filed against them. Their identification was made possible through a thorough digital analysis of data as well as the exchange of information with the NCMEC and U.S. Homeland Security Investigations.<\/p>\n

The two young men, through accounts they managed on social media platforms, allegedly threatened and blackmailed underage girls, extracting pornographic material depicting them. At the same time, according to the relevant announcement, they encouraged the underage victims to engage in acts of self-harm, including carving into their bodies the names or nicknames they used on the accounts through which they operated.<\/p>\n

Last October, a 21-year-old Greek-American was taken into custody in connection with the same case. He had been arrested in April 2025 under a warrant issued by U.S. authorities, but because of his Greek heritage, the warrant had not been extradited to the U.S.<\/p>\n

U.S. authorities warn parents about \u201c764\u201d<\/h3>\n

This decentralized network has been a top priority for U.S. authorities for several months now, even at the federal level. In February, an individual believed to be a member of \u201c764\u201d was arrested on charges of child pornography, while federal investigators found suspicious visual material on his devices. Later that same month, the House Oversight Committee launched an investigation into the matter and asked the FBI to provide an update on the steps it has taken to combat it.<\/p>\n

So in May, the FBI and the New York Police Department (NYPD) publicly warned parents about \u201c764,\u201d describing it as part of a broader ecosystem of \u201cnihilistic violent extremism\u201d that exploits children online. By the end of 2025, the FBI was already investigating more than 350 individuals linked to the network.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAlthough the names of these networks are constantly changing, their activities remain the same: they seek to coerce and manipulate underage victims into harming themselves, animals, and other minors. They may even encourage victims to attempt suicide,\u201d says an FBI agent in a related video addressed to parents.<\/p>\n

The briefing also notes that these individuals \u201care active on social media, gaming apps, and other online platforms.\u201d \u201cThey gain their victims\u2019 trust and then coerce them into sharing personal information as well as photos and videos with explicit content, which are then used to blackmail their victims into creating additional content depicting escalating sexual and violent behavior. These individuals may further coerce their victims using tactics such as \u201cswatting\u201d (making a false emergency call to law enforcement), \u201cdoxing\u201d (blackmail through the disclosure of personal information), and vandalism.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201c764\u201d network operates primarily on Discord and Telegram and, to some extent, on the gaming platforms Roblox and Minecraft, according to Wired. It is also active on various forums.<\/p>\n

It systematically targets underage girls, but according to the FBI, anyone could be a target\u2014minors, adults, men, and women. Victims are usually between the ages of 10 and 17, but victims as young as 9 have also been identified.<\/p>\n

A bullying victim created the darkest child exploitation network<\/h3>\n

It is worth noting that \u201c764\u201d was founded in 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, by Bradley Kadenhead. A victim of bullying himself, Kadenhead dropped out of school at age 15 and was introduced to techniques of remote exploitation of minors and sexual blackmail. <\/p>\n

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Although my thread focused on adult 764 members, it should be noted that many underage abusers in the 764 network have also been arrested, and in some cases tried as adults. <\/p>\n

Bradley Cadenhead was only 15 when he founded 764. He was arrested at age 17 and sentenced to 80\u2026 https:\/\/t.co\/TEodW7w7OJ pic.twitter.com\/KAranqOcqV<\/p>\n

\u2014 Bx (@bx_on_x) May 14, 2025<\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

He then founded \u201c764,\u201d inspired by the first digits of the ZIP code of his hometown, Stephenville, Texas.<\/p>\n

In 2023, Kadenhead was sentenced to 80 years in prison after being found guilty of crimes related to the \u201c764\u201d network.\u00a0“>https:=”” www.iefimerida.gr=”” kosm…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Greeks are among those against whom U.S. authorities have brought charges in connection with the decentralized network of sadistic exploitation …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-greece"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}