Richard Anthony Reyna Densmore, a 47-year-old from Kaleva, Michigan, was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for sexually exploiting a child. Densmore pled guilty to the offense, which was part of a broader indictment that charged him with other child exploitation offenses.
Densmore is a member of the 764 terror network, a decentralized group of violent extremists who seek to normalize the production, sharing, and possession of child pornography and gore material to desensitize and corrupt youth towards future acts of violence.
Members of 764 gain notoriety by systematically targeting, grooming, and extorting victims through online social media platforms. They demand that victims engage in and share media of self-mutilation, sexual acts, harm to animals, acts of random violence, suicide, and murder, all for the purpose of accelerating chaos and disrupting society and the world order.
Densmore orchestrated a community to target children through online gaming sites and used extortion and blackmail to force his minor victims to record themselves committing acts of self-harm and violence. He operated online servers as part of the network. Evidence presented at a detention hearing revealed that Densmore collected prepubescent child pornography and kept violent images and videos on his phones, including images of people cutting symbols and names into their skin.
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/member-violent-764-terror-network-sentenced-30-years-prison-sexually-exploiting-child
Commentary
Most perpetrators of crimes against children are individuals or small groups. However, as the source above indicates, criminal syndicates do exist, including terror networks like 764.
According to a Wikipedia page on the group:
The 764 terror network, also known as 764, was founded in 2021 by Bradley Cadenhead, a teenager from Stephenville, Texas. The group derives its name from the town's ZIP Code. It is a decentralized and transnational sextortion network that is reportedly adjacent to the Order of Nine Angles, a right-wing Satanist terror network.
The network is classified as a terror network by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and is considered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as a "tier one" terrorist threat. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) also classifies 764 as an "ideological violent extremist network".
The network is most present on Discord and Telegram and usually targets children age eight to 17, particularly marginalized children or those suffering from mental health challenges.
Victims are often forced to commit recorded acts of self-harm to disseminate internally or share on social media platforms. They are asked to carve names on their skin as "cutsigns," a form of branding to show their subjugation to the group. The end goal is often for victims to commit suicide on livestream for the network's entertainment or for the perpetrator's own sense of fame within the network. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/764_%28organization%29
The organization is claimed to use Discord. Discord is a popular app among teens and has unfortunately been used by child predators to commit various crimes against children according to a report from NBC news.
Discord servers have been used in child abductions, crime rings, and sextortion. Adults have used the platform to groom children before abducting them, to trade child sexual exploitation material (CSAM), and to extort minors whom they trick into sending nude images.
In a review of international, national, and local criminal complaints, news articles, and law enforcement communications published since Discord was founded, NBC News identified 35 cases over the past six years in which adults were prosecuted on charges of kidnapping, grooming, or sexual assault that allegedly involved communications on Discord. At least 91 of the prosecutions have resulted in guilty pleas or verdicts, while many other cases are ongoing. https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/discord-child-safety-social-platform-challenges-rcna89769
The final takeaway is online threats to children extend beyond individual sexual predators and include syndicates and loosely affiliated terrorist groups. Caring adults should carefully monitor computer usage, but also look for the signs of self-mutilation.
