A San Antonio man who sexually exploited children while leading 8884, an offshoot of the notorious violent extremist collective 764, was sentenced to 40 years in prison in federal court Wednesday, the Justice Department said.
Alexis Aldair Chavez began associating with 764 as a child in 2022 when a co-conspirator introduced him to 7997, one of many 764 offshoots affiliated with the Com. The sprawling nihilistic network of thousands of people, typically between 11 and 25 years old, seek to foster social unrest by destroying civilized society through the corruption and exploitation of children and other vulnerable populations.
The 19-year-old, also known as “Zack” and “Zack8884,” attempted to coerce a girl to commit suicide and blackmailed another girl into self-mutiliation, animal torture and illicit content production in late 2023, according to court records. He later worked with multiple co-conspirators and blackmailed some of his victims to coerce other girls to degrade themselves on camera and produce child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
Chavez was arrested and has been detained without bail since October 2024. He pleaded guilty to multiple crimes involving the sexual exploitation of children in December 2025 and faced up to 60 years in prison for racketeering, distribution and possession of CSAM.
“Chavez’s crimes reveal the ruthless exploitation and manipulation at the core of nihilistic violent extremist groups,” John A. Eisenberg, assistant attorney general for national security, said in a statement.
“These organizations target children as part of their broader mission to spread terror. These groups ultimately seek nothing less than the destruction of our society,” he added. “The National Security Division will use every resource at its disposal to identify and prosecute 764-linked criminality and to protect the most innocent among us from these predators.”
The indictment filed against Chavez in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas details a series of horrifying crimes he committed with co-conspirators and some of his victims.
Prosecutors said Chavez and a co-conspirator coerced a girl to cut her tongue, and torture and kill a cat on a live video call in late 2023. He and co-conspirators also, that same month, groomed and extorted several other girls to commit self harm and degrade themselves on camera.
Allison Nixon, chief research officer at Unit 221B, told CyberScoop the sentence is appropriate even if people understandably dislike imprisoning young people.
“In this space, a certain personality profile is highly predictive of who will risk a prison sentence like this: an obsession with maximizing harm,” she said.
“Reoffending after release is a huge problem. All major global hacking incidents from the Com are done by serial reoffenders — all obsessed with harmfulness, some graduated from the 764 sextortion space,” Nixon added.
Too many jurisdictions are naive in how they handle cases involving members or associates of the Com, allowing these criminals to go home to parents who won’t supervise them, she said.
Officials pressed on this in their reaction to Chavez’s sentencing as well. “Parents need to know what their children are doing online and must stay engaged, ask difficult questions, and not fall into the trap of believing their child is ‘just playing games’ or ‘just talking with their friends,’” Justin R. Simmons, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, said in a statement.
“There is darkness present within many people in this world that want nothing more than to see the United States and western civilization fail. There is no limit to the actions these individuals will take to accomplish that goal, including torturing and abusing children,” Simmons added.
Chavez, who was also ordered to pay $10,000 in restitution and serve lifetime supervised release, joins other 764 members already serving long sentences for similar crimes. Bradley Chance Cadenhed, who founded 764 as a 15-year-old in 2021, was arrested later that year and sentenced to 80 years in prison in 2023.
When the FBI executed a search warrant at Chavez’s residence in July 2024, prosecutors said he came out the backdoor and threw his phone over a neighbor’s fence in an attempt to hide evidence.
Chavez’s sentencing follows a period of heightened law enforcement activity, which has netted arrests of multiple alleged 764 leaders and members. Some of the alleged 764 members arrested since 2025 include: Leonidas Varagiannis and Prasan Nepal, Baron Cain Martin, Tony Christopher Long, Erik Lee Madison, Zachary Sweeney and Aaron Corey.
“True rehabilitation is the best outcome, but no one knows how,” Nixon said.
“The total number of offenders who fit this harm-obsessed profile is vanishingly small. Giving them maximum sentences won’t overflow jails,” she added.
Law enforcement and judges have to be realistic about what it takes to prevent the victimization of children, and handing down lifelong or lengthy prison sentences strikes the right balance between the rights of the offender and society, Nixon said.
FBI officials and agents who track these offenders and gather evidence on their crimes draw similar conclusions.
“Nothing is more abhorrent than those who prey on children and other vulnerable members of our society and this defendant will pay a steep price for doing just that,” Coult Markovsky, acting assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division, said in a statement.
“This sentencing demonstrates the FBI’s unwavering resolve to identify, hunt down, investigate, and prosecute criminals like Chavez who prey on children through violent online networks, including 764, and orchestrate horrific, unspeakable acts of exploitation and violence,” Daniel Faith, special agent in charge of the FBI San Antonio field office, said in a statement.
“These predators use social media, messaging apps, gaming platforms, chat rooms, and video services to groom vulnerable children,” Faith added. “Staying engaged in your child’s online life, maintaining open communication, recognizing the warning signs, and reporting suspicious online activity to law enforcement are critical to stopping these offenders.”
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A Tennessee man accused of abusing and sexually exploiting children while actively participating in 764, a sprawling online nihilistic violent extremist collective affiliated with The Com, pleaded not guilty Thursday to a series of charges that could keep him locked up for 50 years.
Zachary Sweeney has allegedly victimized multiple children, on numerous occasions grooming and coercing minors to produce child sexual abuse material that he distributed and sometimes sold, the Justice Department said. One of the 30-year-old’s alleged victims later died of an overdose.
Sweeney has been the subject of multiple FBI investigations, which uncovered extensive crimes against children dating back to at least 2022, prosecutors said. His alleged involvement in 764 and, by extension, The Com, underscores the growing, multi-faceted threat of physical violence, cybercrime, extortion and the pursuit of criminal underground notoriety posed by thousands of members typically between 11 and 25 years old.
Victims of these crimes are often young, vulnerable and degraded or traumatized for years with life-altering impact.
“Violent extremists who victimize vulnerable children online are among the worst predators in our community and across the country,” Braden Boucek, U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, said in a statement.
Members of 764 and related groups commit crimes in the United States and engage with other extremists globally to foment social unrest and destroy civilized society through the corruption and exploitation of vulnerable people, the Justice Department said.
Police arrested Sweeney Thursday and charged him with three counts of sexual exploitation and attempted sexual exploitation of a minor and three counts of receiving visual depictions of CSAM. Prosecutors said they intend to request Sweeney remain detained at his next court appearance June 3.
Sweeney allegedly traveled to New York, Indiana, Missouri and Georgia to meet numerous victims in person. Officials received reports from some of his alleged victims and online platforms, triggering FBI interviews with some of his alleged victims as early as 2023.
One of his alleged victims, who began interacting with Sweeney when she was a teenager, told investigators she degraded herself and participated in virtual self-harm group video calls with a group of people she described as friends of his in The Com. Sweeney alleged raped her and streamed the crime online.
She died of an overdose in 2024, approximately ten days after FBI agents interviewed her.
Sweeney allegedly drugged and raped other victims and shared videos of those acts online, according to court records.
The FBI searched Sweeney’s residence in St. Louis in September 2023, more than two months after Meta sent a pair of tips to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that linked him to Instagram chats containing CSAM.
Agents seized devices containing evidence of 99 possible CSAM images and videos, but encryption and passwords prevented authorities from conducting further examination, according to court records.
Sweeney moved to Tennessee in the summer of 2024 and allegedly continued to travel out of state to meet victims in person and coerce other victims to produce CSAM through at least the summer of 2025.
Authorities accuse Sweeney of boasting about his crimes and sharing blackmail material, sexual assault and CSAM depicting underage female victims.
Authorities have arrested multiple members of 764 during the past year, reflecting heightened law enforcement activity targeting the violent extremist collective and other offshoots affiliated with The Com.
Two alleged leaders of 764, Leonidas Varagiannis and Prasan Nepal, were arrested and charged for directing and distributing CSAM in April. Alexis Aldair Chavez, of San Antonio, pleaded guilty in December to multiple crimes involving the sexual exploitation of children while acting as an administrator and leader of 8884, a splinter group of 764.
“This operation puts every child predator on notice: the FBI will hunt you down and bring you to justice,” Terence Reilly, special agent in charge of the FBI Nashville Field Office, said in a statement. “Removing violent extremists from our streets protects our most innocent and vulnerable members of society.”
You can read the indictment below.
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