15-year-old Italian detained in Malta linked to "764" network: serious charges
A 15-year-old from Bari is detained in Malta since 25 May for a false bomb alarm. According to the Times of Malta, authorities suspect links to the international "764" network.
Italian 15-year-old in Malta: suspected links to online criminal network "764"
Il Fatto Quotidiano - Cronaca reports that a 15-year-old Italian from Bari, detained in Malta since 25 May, is suspected of having links to "764", the international network accused of grooming minors online and pushing them towards self-harm, violence and sexual exploitation. The boy was initially arrested for a false bomb alarm at his school.
According to the Times of Malta, citing sources close to the investigation, investigators found videos on the boy's electronic devices that would suggest a possible connection and active participation in the group. Due to concern that he could act as a recruiter, the 15-year-old was allegedly kept separate from other detained young people.
Maltese Interior Minister Glenn Bedingfield stated that the boy is "accused of a wide range of serious offences, including criminal association, participation and active involvement in a criminal organisation, offences relating to the production, distribution and possession of child sexual abuse material, dissemination of false information, aggravated threats and intimidation". Last week the father reported "unlawful" conditions of detention. The parents do not contest the charges but maintain that their son has been "treated like a terrorist". The hearing for the bail release request is scheduled for the 19th.
The "764" network and Europol's assessment
The "764" network is considered by Europol a "serious threat". In a report published last November, the European agency described the group as a decentralised online network involved in the exploitation of minors, computer extortion and activities with terrorist methods. The name recalls the telephone prefix of Stephenville, in the United States, the home city of the network's founder.
The group would allegedly groom primarily vulnerable adolescents through gaming platforms and online communities, inducing them to send intimate images then used to blackmail them. Victims would be pushed to film acts of self-harm and, in the most extreme cases, to take their own lives. Europol reported that some victims subsequently become perpetrators of abuse themselves, fuelling a "cycle of trauma". The network would also have ideological links with the Order of Nine Angles, a neo-Nazi occultist organisation.
An emblematic case concerns a 13-year-old from Mato Grosso who died by suicide at the instigation of a group of five minors subsequently arrested in different Brazilian states.
The family's position
The boy's parents reported noticing changes in their son's behaviour from February-March onwards, believing he was groomed while playing online. They consider him a victim who "is nonetheless a 15-year-old who should not only be isolated, but rather helped to reintegrate". Defence lawyer Arthur Azzopardi declined to comment.
Source: Il Fatto Quotidiano - Cronaca