FBI Sees Dramatic Increase In Arrests Of ‘Nihilistic Violent Extremism,’ Individuals Targeting Children

WASHINGTON—The Federal Bureau of Investigation says it has seen a dramatic 490% increase in “Nihilistic Violent Extremism” arrests during the past fiscal year, The Daily Wire can first report — an almost fivefold increase in the 2025 fiscal year.

These arrests are mostly associated with 764, an online network that preys on young children, The Daily Wire has learned.

“Members of ‘764’ use known online social media communications platforms as mediums to support the possession, production, and sharing of extreme gore media and child sex abuse material with vulnerable, juvenile populations,” the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland explained in a Nov. 20 release. “These individuals often conduct coordinated extortions of teenagers, blackmailing the victims to comply with the group’s demands.”

The total number of state, federal, and foreign arrests that occurred as a direct result of FBI investigations and actions resulted in a 490% increase during fiscal year 2025, the FBI shared.

Nihilistic Violent Extremism (NVE) is a law enforcement term describing individuals who are motivated to violence, mainly out of a hatred for society and a desire to see society collapse. An FBI spokesman explained that not every Nihilistic Violent Extremism case they are looking at was specifically related to 764, but many of them are. The bureau views 764 cases as a subset of the Nihilistic Violent Extremism category.

“This FBI is fully engaged in dismantling NVE networks and violent groups like 764 – who prey on young children using online platforms like gaming systems or social media,” FBI Director Kash Patel told The Daily Wire. “As we speak, we have over 300 cases nationwide related to 764 alone, with more to come, and have surged NVE-related arrests almost 5-fold from the year prior. We won’t stop until we get the job done.”

Deputy Director Dan Bongino also emphasized that saving children was “one of the first issues” that he and Patel “put a premium on addressing” when he joined the FBI. In the past year, they’ve located or recovered 5,400 child victims, a 22.7% increase from the same time last year.

“The scourge of 764 networks targeting children online is a deeply important issue in our country that not enough people are aware of,” Bongino said. “We are asking all parents to please be on guard – check in with your kids, report suspicious activity to law enforcement, and consider your options on monitoring your children’s internet usage to limit what these networks can reach. In the meantime, your FBI will be working day and night to crush this violent movement and bring them to justice.”

In Baltimore, the FBI worked with partners to arrest an individual who allegedly targeted five victims, including one who was as young as 13. In Arizona, they snagged an individual who had allegedly targeted nine children between the ages of 11 and 15 as an affiliate of 764. Some of the allegations against that individual include distributing “child pornography, cyberstalking, animal crushing, and even conspiring to provide material support to terrorists.”

FBI Jacksonville recently caught an individual attempting to coerce children into sexual acts online — a case that was not entirely affiliated with 764, but in the same genre, and in April, the FBI arrested two leaders of the 764 network: 21-year-old Leonidas Varagiannis, who is also known as “War,” and 20-year-old Prasan Nepal, also known as “Trippy.” Both were charged with operating an international child exploitation enterprise (764).