DOJ indictment targets pedophile cult that gave birth to global child exploitation threat

(Daily Caller News Foundation) – Federal officials are stopping an online cult’s yearslong child sexual abuse spree with charges and arrests across multiple states, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said Tuesday.

Five alleged leaders of “Greggy’s Cult,” a group that ran from 2019 to 2021 on the messaging platform Discord, were charged with child exploitation and child pornography offenses in a newly unsealed grand jury indictment and arrested on Tuesday. The cult inspired the creation of “764,” a larger, global pedophile network and terrorist movement that President Donald Trump’s FBI has made a top investigative priority, according to prosecutors.

Greggy’s Cult allegedly lured children from video games such as “Roblox” and “Counter Strike: Global Offensive” into their Discord servers, according to prosecutors. “The defendants coerced, induced, and directed these victims to engage in acts of degradation, including self-harm, and to create videos begging for forgiveness or professing the victim is ‘owned’ by a member of Greggy’s Cult to demonstrate loyalty to the Greggy’s Cult member or group,” the indictment says.

“Additionally, the defendants caused victims to write the names of Greggy’s Cult members on their bodies or on a handwritten sign, which activity is referred to by members of the Enterprise as ‘fansigning,’” the DOJ wrote. The predators allegedly threatened or blackmailed the victims to make them comply with their sadistic demands.

The five defendants’ ages range from 22 to 29, and they reside in New York, New Mexico, Hawaii, California and Colorado, according to the DOJ. The cult’s youngest victim was 11 years old, prosecutors said in a Tuesday letter arguing for pretrial detention.

The group’s alleged tactics closely mirror other online predatory networks, especially 764, a Satanist, neo-Nazi movement tied to more than 300 FBI investigations under Trump, the Daily Caller News Foundation previously reported. Authorities are prosecuting numerous alleged 764 predators in the U.S. and abroad.

The DOJ’s Tuesday letter referred to Greggy’s Cult as a “precursor” to 764. Multiple 764 members were also part of Greggy’s Cult, the DOJ said in a press release.

Bradley Cadenhead, the Texas resident who created 764 when he was 15, previously told a psychologist that he took inspiration from being a part of Greggy’s Cult, ABC News reported. Cadenhead formed 764 with friends on Discord, naming it after the last three digits of his zip code. He is now serving an 80-year sentence for child pornography-related crimes.

The Trump administration’s letter to the court highlighted how leaders of Greggy’s Cult allegedly kept their criminal enterprise alive by hiding behind keyboards.

“The defendants used various aliases, Discord user and display names, email and other social media accounts to make it difficult for law enforcement to uncover their true identities,” the letter said. “Because the defendants enjoyed anonymity for years, they were able to persist in their conduct even after Discord repeatedly removed their accounts or the Target Server from the platform; on those occasions, the defendants used variations of their aliases to continue to engage in their criminal content.”

Some defendants continued soliciting or distributing child pornography online years after Greggy’s Cult no longer existed, the DOJ alleged.

A judge ordered defendant Hector Bermudez of Queens, New York, to be held in jail until his detention hearing Thursday, according to court records, which do not yet show detention hearings for the other arrestees.