A 21-year-old from North Carolina who joined and helped establish 764 as an underage teenager and quickly emerged as the leader of the child sextortion group until his arrest last year pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday, the Justice Department said. Prasan Nepal pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit sexual exploitation of a child as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors and faces at least 15 years and up to 30 years in prison upon sentencing.Nepal, also known as “Trippy,” ran the nihilistic violent extremist network for almost four years and played a crucial role facilitating the grooming, manipulation and extortion of minors.Nepal and his alleged co-conspirator Leonidas Varagiannis, who was arrested in Greece last year, controlled membership in 764 and access to a subgroup of highly-involved members known as “764 Inferno,” according to court records.The Justice Department describes 764 as a “network of nihilistic violent extremists who engage in criminal conduct in the United States and abroad, seeking to destroy civilized society through the corruption and exploitation of vulnerable populations, which often include minors.”Members of 764 are affiliated with “The Com,” a global collective of loosely associated groups that commit financially motivated, sexual and violent crimes, according to threat researchers.Nepal instructed 764 members on how to exploit vulnerable children and commented on content posted in the group’s channels. He admitted to requiring prospective members to produce and share child sexual abuse material, self-mutilation, self-immolation, animal cruelty, and acts of violence against other people and property.He regularly monitored activity in the group and required members to continue producing and posting acts of self-harm. Nepal also ordered victims to commit these acts and engaged in psychological torment and extreme violence against children, sometimes extorting victims to produce sexually harmful material.In an indictment, prosecutors accused Nepal and Varagiannis of exploiting at least eight minor victims, some as young as 13 years old, across multiple jurisdictions. “This case exposes a world where cruelty is currency, violence is entertainment and children are treated as targets in a game of domination and control,” Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said in a statement.“What Nepal and his co‑conspirators built was not just a criminal operation, it was a deliberate campaign to corrupt the vulnerable and dismantle the guardrails of civilized society,” Pirro added. “Today’s plea is a victory for every child they sought to harm, and a warning to anyone who believes they can hide behind an encrypted screen: we will find you, and we will stop you.”Officials said members of 764 also extort victims to commit suicide and murder, and publish compilations of photographs and videos of targeted victims to gain notoriety within the network and spread fear.“I doubt these types of offenders can be reasoned with, and I don’t think sending a message is the point,” Allison Nixon, chief research officer at Unit 221B, told CyberScoop. “The biggest value is getting them off the table. Reoffending rates for online gangs is extremely high, so making each prison stint count is important.”Prosecutors listed the monikers of 22 additional alleged co-conspirators in the indictment against Nepal and Variagiannis. The Justice Department said Varagiannis, also known as “War,” remains detained in Greece and is expected to face a trial in the next six months on charges related to CSAM and participation in a criminal organization.Nepal’s guilty plea follows a period of heightened law enforcement activity targeting members of 764 and affiliated groups.Kyle William Spitze, an original member of 764 and leader of one of its offshoots, was sentenced to 77 years in prison, the longest imprisonment ever imposed on a nihilistic violent extremist in late August.Alexis Aldair Chavez, who began associating with 764 as a child in 2022 before leading an offshoot 8884, was sentenced to 40 years in prison in July.Other alleged 764 members arrested since 2025 include: Baron Cain Martin, Tony Christopher Long, Erik Lee Madison, Zachary Sweeney and Aaron Corey.“It is great seeing every generation of copycats get arrested even faster than the previous generation, and seeing the long sentences,” Nixon said. “We need realistic expectations about permanently ending the problem, because people with violent tendencies have existed for all of human history,” she added. “The measure of success is whether society can enforce the law to ensure people with these tendencies cannot persist and escalate.”A case in Maine last month, involving the first child federally charged and adjudicated for crimes stemming from their involvement in 764, underscores the sprawling reach of the group and legal challenges confronting law enforcement. “With the 764 cases, I think law enforcement sets a strong example,” Nixon said. “Success can be directly measured in terms of child lives. Success means minimizing turnaround time and maximizing sentences,” she added. “I hope the entire Com is treated like this one day.”The post Leader of 764 pleads guilty, faces up to 30 years in prison appeared first on CyberScoop.