(LifeSiteNews) — The FBI has issued an advisory about a newly discovered “violent” Satanic group targeting vulnerable children online.
On September 12, the federal agency released a public service announcement warning Americans “of violent online groups deliberately targeting minor victims on publicly available messaging platforms to extort them into recording or live-streaming acts of self-harm and producing child sexual abuse material (CSAM).”
“These groups use threats, blackmail, and manipulation to control the victims into recording or live-streaming self-harm, sexually explicit acts, and/or suicide,” the announcement continues. “The footage is then circulated among members to extort victims further and exert control over them.”
The groups reportedly “use many names, including 676, 764, CVLT, Court, Kaska, Harm Nation, Leak Society and H3II.” Most groups require “prospective members … to live-stream or upload videos depicting their minor victim harming animals or committing self-harm, suicide, murder or other acts of violence.”
The FBI noted that prime targets of these groups are kids between the ages of 8 and 17 as well as those struggling with gender confusion, depression, and suicidality. Blackmail and threats of doxing victims “if they do not comply with the groups’ requests” are commonly used to “manipulate and extort minors.” The agency also detailed that acts of self-harm requested by such groups “includes cutting, stabbing or fan signing.”
A common “end-goal” among the groups is “forcing the minors they extort into committing suicide on live-stream for their own entertainment or their own sense of fame.”
“The FBI urges the public to exercise caution when posting or direct messaging personal photos, videos, and identifying information on social media, dating apps, and other online sites,” the announcement states. “Although seemingly innocuous when posted or shared, the images and videos can provide malicious actors an abundant supply of content to exploit for criminal activity.”
“Advancements in content creation technology and accessible personal images online present new opportunities for malicious actors to find and target minor victims. This leaves them vulnerable to embarrassment, harassment, extortion, financial loss, or continued long-term re-victimization.”
The agency also encouraged families to be aware of “warning signs” that children may be exposed to such abuse and inflicting self-harm.
Unveiling a Satanic group after arresting a 23-year-old on gun charges
The discovery of the group came after 23-year-old Angel Almeida was arrested on gun possession charges in Queens, New York, nearly two years ago. It was found amid this investigation, which unveiled social media posts pointing to a larger issue.
As originally reported by The Guardian, “The FBI was directed to Almeida by an anonymous tipster flagging his social media accounts, which contained images of violence against children and violence against animals.”
Law enforcement found “a 9mm handgun, bandoliers of rifle ammunition, books pertaining to the Order of Nine Angles [O9A], and a flag bearing the insignia of an American O9A offshoot, the Tempel ov Blood.”
“The most telling item was an O9A ‘blood covenant’ featuring a blood-smeared drawing of a hooded figure with glowing red eyes surrounded with sigils for four O9A deities and the caption Vindex, Nythra, Satan and Abatu. At the bottom of the page is an oath: ‘A covenant signed in blood. May the DEVIL walk with you always — SATANAE MANIBUS’ (‘by Satan’s Hand’ in Latin),” which was like those found in relation to other “O9A-influenced killers in Britain and Canada.”
Almeida was hit with additional charges of child pornography and exploitation in February, evidenced by “hundreds of thousands of digital files” found in his apartment. Specifically, “prosecutors allege Almeida coerced a teenage girl into having sexual relations with an older man and convinced another girl to cut herself, record the act on camera and send it to him.”
After being found fit to stand trial in September, Almeida is scheduled for court on December 4. He is being represented by a court-appointed attorney, who is the fourth to represent him “since his arrest in 2021,” after multiple attempted attacks of department staff and his own attorney. Depending on the outcome of the case, Almeida “faces a potential maximum of life in federal prison.”
The Guardian also explained that “documents and sources familiar with 764 indicate the group is an offshoot of the Order of Nine Angles (O9A), a violent, subversive amalgam of esoteric Hitler worship, Satanism and Wiccan tenets that American authorities recognize as a terrorist ideology that has been connected with murders and attempted terrorist attacks in countries including the US, Britain, Germany, Canada and Russia.”
Sources also shared that “the group has a network of a couple thousand participants and hundreds of highly active members who generate and disseminate the bulk of the child pornography and gore videos found in the group’s channels on Telegram, Discord and more obscure platforms like Matrix.”