NC man arrested as part of international child exploitation ring ‘764,' DOJ says
HIGH POINT, N.C. (WGHP) — A man from High Point has been taken into custody by the Department of Justice for his role in what is described as a violent organization participating in the exploitation of children.
Prasan Nepal, 20, of High Point, was taken into custody on April 22 after being accused of being a leader of the organization '764' since at least 2021.
764 is described by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue as a 'network of online groups that engage in sextortion and the glorification of violence. The network, which comprises a constantly shifting landscape of splinter groups and offshoots, forces minor victims to produce Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM). They then use that CSAM as leverage to force victims to perform acts of violence, animal abuse, or self-harm. They also engage in extensive swatting, harassment, and intimidation campaigns to silence their victims.'
The ISD says that 764 also has taken inspiration from extremist groups such as the Order of Nine Angles, an esoteric neo-Nazi group.
'The 764 network's accelerationist goals include social unrest and the downfall of the current world order, including the United States Government,' according to the DOJ complaint. 'Members of 764 work in concert with one another towards a common purpose of destroying civilized society through the corruption and exploitation of vulnerable populations, including minors.'
The DOJ describes this disparate network as 'NVEs,' or 'nihilistic violent extremists,' in their complaint.
Nihilistic violent extremists, according to an early DOJ filing, are 'individuals who engage in criminal conduct within the United States and abroad, in furtherance of political, social, or religious goals that derive primarily from a hatred of society at large and a desire to bring about its collapse by sowing indiscriminate chaos, destruction, and social instability. NVEs work individually or as part of a network with these goals of destroying civilized society.'
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Journalist Ken Klippenstein opines that the designation, created by the FBI under Kash Patel, is an attempt to make terrorism designations sound 'non-partisan' in the wake of Jan. 6's anti-government insurrection and the Biden administration's focus on anti-government extremism.
The DOJ states that Nepal, along with an American citizen living abroad in Greece, identified as Leonidas Varagiannis, 21, engaged in a 'child exploitation enterprise' as leadership in 764. Nepal and Varagiannis are accused of exploiting minors and facilitating the production of child pornography.
'Members of 764, both individually and as a group, methodically targeted vulnerable populations, including minor girls with mental health challenges, and attempted to socially engineer them, gain their trust, and then groom them to share private information and intimate visual depictions of themselves engaged in sexually explicit conduct,' the complaint reads.
According to the complaint, 764 members would use this information and intimate content to escalate further, coercing the victims into providing images of more extreme acts such as self-harm, abusing pets and siblings, setting themselves on fire and even suicide.
Nepal is accused of operating 764 since its inception in late 2020 or early 2021. He took over leadership after the original founder of 764 was arrested in 2021. Nepal used monikers such as 'Leather Jacket,' 'Rebirth,' and 'KingKrampus,' but the complaint says he was known in 764 Inferno as 'Trippy.' Varagiannis joined in 2023 and was known in the primary 764 chat, '764 Inferno,' as 'War.'
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'764 Inferno leadership, including the defendants, conspired with group members to create and distribute images of the exploitation of minors,' the complaint reads. 'These images depicted both the sexual exploitation of minors as well as images depicting self-mutilation. The defendants controlled membership in and access to the group. The defendants posted instructions to group members regarding methods they should employ to exploit vulnerable minor children. The defendants also interacted with group members by commenting on the exploitation material they posted. 764 relied on members recruiting other members into the group in order to generate additional content, including child exploitation content, that could be distributed in the group.'
Nepal is accused of admitting on social media as far back as 2019 that he had child sex abuse material, posting on Snapchat 'I got cp if u wanna see it … child porn … I'll send it.'
He is also quoted as advocating for the extortion of young girls, writing 'I'd rather have extortions continue than stop generally because it does in a way promote harm and teaches cringey e girls lessons.'
Nepal is also accused of controlling recruitment into 764 Inferno, telling a co-conspirator that several aspiring members couldn't be let in until they 'do some crazy s—.' One co-conspirator allegedly shared a video of a young girl taking her own life at their direction.
The two men, along with unnamed co-conspirators, are also accused of creating a 'guide' for aspiring 764 members on how to create child sexual exploitation material and other material for the group.
'The guide specifically instructed recruits on 'grooming' victims into producing content for 764, and advised members to target particularly vulnerable victims, such as individuals with depression or mental illness,' the complaint reads, adding that the guide provided instructions for extorting the vulnerable young people being targeted.
Nepal is accused of writing in the chat, 'Extortion is a form of discipline to little girls who might not have a father at home. It's a good thing.'
The complaint goes into detail about child sex abuse material that the unnamed co-conspirators posted in the '764 Inferno' chat, of which Nepal and Varagiannis were administrators.
Nepal is currently in the Guilford County jail on a federal hold. Federal court filings show he has a public defender.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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