‘The allegations in this case are not only disturbing, they are also every parent’s nightmare,’ U.S. Attorney Edward R. Martin Jr. said.
Two leaders of a child exploitation network known as 764 have been arrested, federal officials announced on Wednesday.
Prasan Nepal, 20, of High Point, North Carolina, was arrested on April 22 in North Carolina. Leonidas Varagiannis, 21, was arrested on April 29 in Greece on an international warrant.
Both defendants face charges of operating an international child exploitation enterprise, marking a major takedown of an operation that targets innocent children, according to FBI Director Kash Patel.
“This is a significant case in our renewed mission to crack down on child sexual exploitation and abuse—heinous crimes that no child or parent should ever be faced with,” Patel said on Wednesday in a statement on social media platform X.
Varagiannis has denied the allegations. He appeared in court on Wednesday before an appellate prosecutor and opposed extradition, according to Greek judicial authorities and his lawyer.
“Throughout the period during which the alleged offenses took place, he was residing in Greece. Therefore, Greek law and courts have jurisdiction over the case, and his extradition is explicitly prohibited,” his lawyer, Xanthippi Moysidou, told The Associated Press.
Nepal is currently in the Guilford County, North Carolina, jail on a federal hold and has a public defender.
Federal prosecutors allege the two men targeted children as young as 13 years old from late 2020 through early 2025 across multiple jurisdictions through the 764 criminal enterprise.
764 is a network of online groups that “methodically target and exploit minors and other vulnerable individuals,” according to a public service announcement posted by the FBI on March 6.
“These networks use threats, blackmail, and manipulation to coerce or extort victims into producing, sharing, or live-streaming acts of self-harm, animal cruelty, sexually explicit acts, and/or suicide,” the FBI said.
The material is used as leverage to force victims to perform acts of violence and even self-harm. The network also engages in swatting and harassment to silence its victims.
A criminal complaint unsealed on Wednesday in the District of Columbia shows examples of online manuals used by the defendants to instruct others on how to groom and extort minors. The guides taught others specifically how to target vulnerable children online, according to the affidavit, and ultimately coerced and threatened them into creating degrading content.
‘The allegations in this case are not only disturbing, they are also every parent’s nightmare,’ U.S. Attorney Edward R. Martin Jr. said in a Department of Justice statement on April 29.
The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. The DOJ launched the initiative in May 2006.
The initiative utilizes federal, state, and local resources to locate, arrest, and prosecute those who exploit children through the internet. It also aims to identify and rescue victims.
Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday called for swift justice in the case.
“These defendants are accused of orchestrating one of the most heinous online child exploitation enterprises we have ever encountered—a network built on terror, abuse, and the deliberate targeting of children,” Bondi said in a statement. “We will find those who exploit and abuse children, prosecute them, and dismantle every part of their operation.”
Varagiannis will remain in custody until a court of appeals rules on the U.S. extradition request.
If convicted, both defendants face a maximum penalty of life in prison.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.