A joint operation by the Mossos d’Esquadra, the Ertzaintza, and the Civil Guard has made it possible to arrest a 17-year-old minor in Guipúzcoa, considered a “very active member” of the 764 network in Spain, an extremist organization dedicated to recruiting and exploiting minors online.
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He is allegedly linked to sending threats to educational centers, town halls, social associations, public bodies, and various personalities. The young man announced violent actions that ultimately did not occur, although they caused social alarm and forced the deployment of extraordinary security measures. He was placed at the disposal of the judiciary and is serving a preventive measure of internment in a specialized center.
The detainee is considered the main reference in Spain of this extremist organization, a transnational network that operates mainly through the internet and seeks to recruit and influence vulnerable minors and young people.
He is attributed with threats against educational centers, town halls, libraries, social associations, public bodies, and various personalities
According to the Mossos in a statement, this organization has been investigated in several countries for its connection to crimes such as sextortion, organized harassment, distribution of child sexual exploitation material, inducement to self-harm, dissemination of extreme violence content, animal abuse, and campaigns of threats and harassment against institutions, social entities, and individuals.
The detainee is allegedly responsible for sending numerous threats directed at educational centers, town halls, libraries, social associations, public bodies, and various personalities.
All the threats referred to his supposed membership in the 764 organization and, in some cases, he stated that he would broadcast live, through an online platform, the murders he intended to commit so that they could be witnessed by other group members. Among the investigated acts, threats directed at a well-known leisure and free time center and several people also stand out.
The investigation also uncovered the use of swatting, doxing, and identity theft techniques, common practices in extremist internet communities. The goal, according to the Mossos, was to falsely accuse innocent third parties to provoke police interventions, create risky situations, and divert investigators’ attention. As a result of these actions, at least two people, one in the Basque Country and another in Catalonia, were victims of harassment campaigns linked to the investigated acts.
The organization promoted psychological manipulation dynamics over vulnerable minors and young people
Investigations revealed that the detainee maintained contacts and participated in digital spaces where psychological manipulation dynamics over vulnerable minors and young people were promoted. In these environments, behaviors of extreme humiliation, self-harm, and submission to the recruiters’ will were encouraged.
References to degrading behaviors were also found, as well as humiliating acts to later spread the images within the virtual community as a mechanism of control and submission.
