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Queens man, 4 others across US, indicted in horrific online child exploitation ring

John Annese, New York Daily News on

Published in News & Features

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 defendants and other members of Greggy’s Cult found victims on Discord servers or on gaming platforms such as Roblox and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive,” federal prosecutors wrote in court filings. “The defendants prolifically trafficked child pornography, sexually exploited minors and communicated interstate threats, including towards both minor and adult victims.”

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.

The videos included young victims begging for forgiveness, saying they were “owned” by a member of Greggy’s Cult, and writing the names of the ring’s members on their bodies or on a handwritten sign — an activity the conspirators referred to as “fansigning,” the feds allege. They also tried to frame adult victims as pedophiles, the feds say.

“The 11-year-old victim, they had him insert a household object in his anus live on a Discord,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Antoinette Rangel said at his arraignment Tuesday.

And they even urged some of their victims to abuse their siblings or kill themselves, telling one victim to overdose on medication or hang themselves from a ceiling fan, the feds allege.

Prosecutors refer to Greggy’s Cult as a precursor to the “764” exploitation ring, described by federal authorities as a “Nihilistic Violent Extremist” network that targets vulnerable children and coerces them into “self-mutilation, online and in-person sexual acts, harm to animals, sexual exploitation of siblings and others, acts of violence, threats of violence, suicide and murder.”

The feds arrested two alleged leaders of 764 in an April indictment in Washington, D.C., and busted two more alleged 764 members in Maryland and California earlier this year.

Bermudez’s alleged accomplices include David Brilhante, 28, of San Diego, also known as “Knight” and “CS:GO;” Zachary Dosch, 26, of Albuquerque, also known as “Moist Nigerian;” Rumaldo Valdez, 22, of Honolulu, also known as “Duck;” and Camden Rodriguez, 22, of Longmont, Colo., also known as “oHare” and “carroteater.” They’re expected to appear in court in Brooklyn at a later date.

Valdez pleaded guilty to a federal child porn possession charge in Hawaii in May, and is awaiting sentencing.

Prosecutors in Hawaii discovered horrific videos of sexual abuse and torture of young children and toddlers on Valdez’s hard drive, according to court filings, and unearthed a message on a Discord server where he discussed his enthusiasm for watching child pornography: “oh yeah, I do it all the time. I get bored. Normal porn won’t do it for me anymore.”

 

The indictment also charges a sixth suspect, whose name is redacted.

U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella urged parents to talk to their children about the dangers of talking to strangers online.

“As alleged, the defendants leveraged a popular internet platform to coerce minors into creating grotesque child pornography of themselves, which the defendants distributed, and then tormented these victims with the images, not only encouraging self-harm, but also encouraging some minors to commit suicide,” Nocella said in a statement Tuesday. “The defendants’ conduct, as alleged, is monstrous and will be vigorously prosecuted.”

Even after Greggy’s Cult appeared to have disbanded, Bermudez is suspected of grooming and soliciting child pornography from two minors as recently as June, the feds wrote in a letter asking he and his co-defendants be held without bail.

Brilhante appeared to be engaged in similar activity last year, while authorities got a tip that Rodriguez “was known for selling bots and login information and was the developer of video game malware that infected over 3,000 victim computers within one hour of its release online,” prosecutors wrote.

Bermudez, who the feds say also goes by “Rogue” and “Diablo,” was arraigned in Brooklyn Federal Court Tuesday, where Magistrate Judge Cheryl Pollack ordered him held until Thursday, so he could present an appropriate bail proposal.

Rangel argued that Bermudez shouldn’t be released because he’s still a danger to the community: “It’s very difficult to monitor his access to the internet,” she said, pointing out his history of opening multiple Discord accounts.

His lawyer, Gary Kaufman, countered that Bermudez’s medical problems were so severe — he has cystic fibrosis, received a double lung transplant in January 2024, has holes in his stomach for tubes if his caloric intake gets low, and takes about 20 daily medications — that he might not survive a stay at the MDC Brooklyn jail.

“There is no margin of error with his health, and at MDC all we see is error,” Kaufman said, alluding to the jail’s past instances of medical mistreatment.

Even so, Bermudez will have to stay at the MDC in the short term at least, until his return to court Thursday.

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©2025 New York Daily News. Visit nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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