"A group of men, one of them from Queens, ran a disturbing online child exploitation ring that targeted kids on Discord and on hyper-popular online games Roblox and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, coercing the youngsters into filming themselves performing sex acts, the feds allege. Queens resident Hector Bermudez, 29, who went by the handle Fiasco, was part of a sick group calling itself Greggy's Cult, according to an indictment unsealed against him and four co-defendants in Brooklyn Federal Court Tuesday."
"The group, which was active between 2019 and 2021, operated its scheme on the messaging platform Discord, and coerced children as young as 11 years old, often exploiting their mental health status or fraught family situations, the feds allege. They had the children join video calls, urging the victims to engage in acts of degradation, according to court filings. Then, the exploitation ring recorded and took screenshots of those videos, and used them to harass and threaten their victims, the feds allege."
Members of Greggy's Cult recruited minors through Discord servers and gaming platforms including Roblox and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive between 2019 and 2021. The group coerced children as young as 11, exploiting mental-health vulnerabilities and unstable family situations, and pressured victims into video calls to perform degrading sexual acts. The conspirators recorded and screenshotted those sessions, branded victims by forcing them to write members' names on their bodies or signs (fansigning), and distributed child pornography. The ring threatened and harassed victims with the material, tried to frame adults as pedophiles, urged self-harm or sibling abuse, and communicated interstate threats during the scheme.
Read at www.mercurynews.com
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