FBI Director Kash Patel said arrests for the infamous online exploitation ring, the “764” network, are up almost 500 percent over last year.
In an exclusive interview with The Epoch Times’ Jan Jekielek, Patel said his agency made a “huge push” to protect children against the “predators” associated with the network.
This group has proven to be dangerous for minors and other vulnerable groups who are targeted and threatened through forums and gaming platforms.
The FBI announced on Feb. 20 that it has prioritized these investigations.
The director spoke to the difficulty in tracking down the predators, saying, “These individuals are actors throughout America and throughout the world who don’t really have a connection to each other.”
Patel said that the group preys on children as young as 8 years old, convincing them to send sexually explicit photos of themselves to the predators in the group.
Additionally, group members have been found to exchange information about torturing animals with children and convincing the kids to “mutilate themselves,” or as in one case, even commit suicide.
“So, we made it a mission set priority to collaborative work against the 764 network. And I’m proud to announce today that the number of arrests that this FBI has against [the] 764 network this year alone is up 490 percent from the same time last year,” Patel said in the interview airing at 5 p.m. ET on Nov. 29.
“That’s how hard we’re going after this disgusting group of individuals, these criminals, and we’re not going to stop until we safeguard the online community.”
Earlier this year, the FBI warned of a “sharp increase” in activity of groups like the 764 network, saying that the groups “methodically target and exploit minors” and others. The groups use threats, blackmail, and other forms of manipulation to coerce or extort victims.
These networks use leverage on the victims to obtain footage of them involved in explicit or dangerous acts, which are then circulated through the group and used to extort victims.
The Department of Justice refers to 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.”
The group was started in 2021 by then-15-year-old Texas resident Bradley Cadenhead, who was later sentenced to 80 years in prison for the creation and distribution of child sexual abuse materials.
In addition to work on the 764 network, Patel said that more than 6,000 previously missing children who crossed the border from Mexico into the United States have been located thanks to the work of the FBI. That is a 25 percent increase over last year’s figures.
“If this mission was failing, then how have we found the most children ever, in the history of the FBI, than ever before?” Patel said in the interview. “Because this FBI cares about going after and protecting children and finding children and reuniting them with their families, and we’re going to continue to do that.”
Additionally, the FBI has arrested 1,500 child predators this year—a 5 percent increase over last year, according to Patel’s previous comments in September. The FBI also made another 300 arrests of human traffickers.
Outside of the FBI’s work, White House border czar Tom Homan confirmed just days ago that about 30,000 missing illegal immigrant children have been located by the Trump administration so far this year.
FBI Director Kash Patel said arrests for the infamous online exploitation ring, the “764” network, are up almost 500 percent over last year.
