By: Russ Spencer

Federal prosecutors this week unveiled one of the most disturbing child-exploitation operations ever uncovered in the United States, exposing an online cult whose tactics, reach, and ideological underpinnings read like the plot of a dystopian horror film. But as The New York Post reported on Wednesday, this nightmare was not fiction. It was real, sprawling, and targeted some of the nation’s most vulnerable children.\

“Greggy’s Cult,” a grotesque digital network dismantled by Brooklyn federal authorities, did far more than solicit illicit images from minors. Prosecutors allege it was tied directly to an international neo-Nazi ecosystem specializing in psychological domination, sexual extortion, and brutal self-harm rituals. What began as predator groups lurking on gaming platforms metastasized into a global scheme whose handiwork included child pornography, coerced mutilation, the killing of family pets, and even murder.

The Post, which broke several key developments in the investigation, reported that the alleged architects of the group hunted for children as young as eleven across Roblox, Discord, and similar platforms. Once a child was ensnared, members of the cult coerced them into producing explicit material, inscribing symbols on their bodies, and submitting to escalating cycles of humiliation meant to bind them to their abusers.

But what sets this case apart is that Greggy’s Cult operated not in isolation but as part of a far larger lattice of online extremism. According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), whose June report was cited extensively by The New York Post, Greggy’s Cult overlapped significantly with “764,” a sadistic, digitally-rooted movement that itself grew out of a neo-Nazi occult organization known as the Order of Nine Angles (O9A). These groups combine white supremacist ideology, ritualized violence, and an obsession with dominating psychologically fragile youth.

The Post’s report highlighted that prominent members of 764 participated in Greggy’s Cult, importing with them a culture of depravity that had already metastasized across several countries. “Victims are often pressured to engage in increasingly extreme behaviors to test loyalty,” the ADL concluded, documenting cases that included forced asphyxiation, mutilation, and coerced acts of violence.

764’s founder, Bradley Cadenhead—a Texas dropout who was only fifteen when he launched the network in 2020—is now serving an eighty-year federal sentence. But as The New York Post notes, the cult he built lived on in successor groups long after his imprisonment. Investigators say Greggy’s Cult represents one of the most violent and sexually coercive of these offshoots.

Perhaps most chilling in the unfolding narrative is the deliberate weaponization of gaming communities. Roblox, one of the world’s most popular youth gaming platforms, became a primary hunting ground, according to investigators cited in The New York Post report. Children navigating seemingly innocent virtual environments were quietly approached by predators masquerading as peers or mentors.

Victims were then funneled to Discord servers, private chats, and encrypted messaging channels where cult members initiated what prosecutors called “grooming escalations.” These included scripted psychological manipulation, manufactured “loyalty tests,” and explicit instructions designed to entrap and ultimately terrorize minors into compliance.

The New York Post’s earlier reporting on similar networks helped raise alarms within law enforcement. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch and Deputy Commissioner Rebecca Weiner had warned in a Post op-ed that such cults represented a rapidly evolving national security threat. “It’s the stuff of nightmares,” they wrote. “And dismantling these virulent networks is now a top priority across the United States and Europe.”

Their words now seem prescient.

The crimes connected to 764 and its associated networks have been as international as they are gruesome. The New York Post report, citing ADL findings, detailed several incidents in which teenagers indoctrinated or manipulated by these groups committed acts of severe violence. A Tennessee high-school student who opened fire on classmates claimed allegiance to MKY, another neo-Nazi cult that influenced 764. An eighteen-year-old in Turkey livestreamed a stabbing near a mosque in August 2024. A German teenager in 2022 broadcast himself slitting a woman’s throat on video. ,

These were not isolated tragedies. They represented the deadly maturation of online cult infrastructures designed to radicalize and weaponize teenagers not only sexually, but ideologically and violently.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, in cooperation with the FBI, unsealed indictments against five men accused of leading Greggy’s Cult. They are Hector Bermudez, 29, of Queens, Rumaldo Valez, 22, of Hawaii, Camden Rodriguez, 22, of Colorado, Zachary Dosch, 26, of New Mexico, and David Brilhante, 28, of California.

The charges include conspiracy to sexually exploit minors, child pornography production, and psychological coercion. Prosecutors allege the men encouraged minors to kill themselves, insert household objects into their genitals or rectum, and carry out rituals designed to prove allegiance to the cult.

The cult’s operations spanned January 2020 to January 2021, but even after their Discord server was wiped, members—most notably Bermudez and Rodriguez—allegedly continued stalking new victims online, according to prosecutors quoted by The New York Post.

Brilhante allegedly sent child pornography to a minor as recently as September 2024.

One of the broader questions raised by investigative sources quoted in The Post is how and why these networks managed to thrive despite prior federal crackdowns. The answer lies partly in the ephemeral nature of digital platforms, where new servers, accounts, and identities can be regenerated instantly and without verification.

Roblox and Discord have both faced scrutiny for failing to identify dangerous patterns fast enough. Roblox has over 70 million daily active users, many of them children—making it nearly impossible to police thoroughly. Discord, used widely by gamers and teens, offers semi-private and encrypted communication environments that are notoriously difficult to monitor.

Experts note that while social platforms routinely shut down specific accounts or servers, extremist groups migrate seamlessly, often resurfacing within hours under new aliases. The Greggy’s Cult server, for instance, was shuttered more than three years ago, yet several of its core members continued exploiting minors long after federal investigators believed the group dismantled.

While public outrage has understandably centered on the horrific sexual exploitation, law enforcement officials told The New York Post that the ideological aspects of these cults may represent an even more insidious long-term threat.

764, O9A, and MKY are not simply online predators—they are extremist movements attempting to indoctrinate youth into violent neo-Nazi and Satanist worldviews. Their literature encourages ritual violence, destabilization of social order, and the cultivation of “useful chaos” to advance their aims.

The ADL warned that these cults actively seek out adolescents struggling with identity, sexuality, or mental health. Vulnerable children become both sexual targets and ideological recruits, groomed to believe that self-harm and acts of violence are pathways to empowerment, loyalty, and belonging.

Federal and local law enforcement are continuing to unwind the remnants of these networks, but as prosecutors and The Post have stressed, the most effective line of defense remains at home.

U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella, announcing the indictments, issued a blunt warning: “I strongly urge parents and caregivers to have conversations with their children about the dangers of communicating online with strangers and individuals who seek to cruelly exploit them.”

The Post has frequently emphasized that most parents have no awareness these groups exist, much less how they operate. Teenagers often hide their online activity or are lured into private channels before parents can notice.

Experts recommend that parents monitor gaming platform communications install parental controls and content filters, discuss online grooming tactics explicitly, encourage children to report any suspicious messages immediately and keep an eye on abrupt behavioral changes, secretive digital behavior, or unexplained self-harm.

What emerges from this investigation is not simply a depraved criminal conspiracy but a sprawling hybrid of child exploitation, psychological warfare, and extremist recruitment. As The New York Post and federal officials have noted, these groups have morphed into a genuine national-security concern.

The fusion of neo-Nazi ideology, sadistic ritual, and technological anonymity allows these cults to metastasize across borders, jurisdictions, and digital platforms. Their recruitment relies on psychological manipulation rather than ideology alone—making them uniquely effective in exploiting the insecurities and vulnerabilities of the young.

Federal agents are working aggressively to pursue additional suspects and map the full breadth of the networks. International partners in Europe and Asia have also stepped up collaborations, recognizing that extremism and child exploitation no longer exist in distinct silos.

The arrests announced this week represent a significant milestone in the fight against online child exploitation and extremist recruitment. But as The New York Post report cautioned, groups such as Greggy’s Cult do not simply disappear with a handful of indictments. They regenerate, mutate, and reemerge in new forms—as long as the digital terrain remains fertile and largely unregulated.

The case should serve as a jolting wake-up call not only to parents, but also to policymakers, educators, and tech executives. A new era of predatory extremism has emerged—one that blends ideology, sexual coercion, psychological control, and digital anonymity. And its victims are children.

Society can no longer afford to treat these cases as isolated incidents. They are part of a rapidly evolving threat landscape that demands vigilance, coordination, and cultural awareness on a scale we have not yet mustered.

As law enforcement dismantles one cell after another, the real question persists: Will America recognize the danger before more children are pulled into the abyss?