Federal authorities last week arrested two young men they claim have ties to an infamous online sextortion network of pedophiles that engages in the coordinated grooming and coercive exploitation of vulnerable children.
The Department of Justice identified the men as Matthew Edward Pysher and Bryant Najera Gonzalez.
Both men were arrested in Los Angeles, though only one of them lives in California.
Pysher, 18, is accused of traveling from Pennsylvania to meet a 13-year-old girl he’s now accused of molesting in a motel room in Castaic, California.
Feds said Pysher sexually assaulted the girl while brandishing a knife. When he was arrested, investigators recovered a knife as well as personal lubricant.
The victim told police Pysher repeatedly cut her with the knife, and choked her so hard, she was unable to speak. Officers recovered bloody tissues from the hotel room’s trash can.
Police were tipped off about Pysher on Friday, February 20, after he took a flight to Los Angeles.
Pysher, according to feds, had been grooming his victim for more than two months after meeting her in an online chat room for people with mental health illnesses. He used the online alias “Piano Man,” investigators said.
Pysher was charged with travel to engage in sexual conduct with a minor, a felony that carries a possible 30-year prison sentence.
Pysher’s arrest came less than a week after Gonzalez’s arrest. He stands accused of coercing, inducing and enticing minor girls to create and send him sexually explicit videos as well as humiliating footage and clips of them self-harming. Gonzalez, 24, later shared the images online.
Gonzalez was busted in Los Angeles on Thursday, February 19, for production of child pornography.
“According to an affidavit filed with the complaint, from at least April 2025 to June 2025, through social media platforms, direct messaging, and other means of communication, Gonzalez coerced, induced, and enticed children to create and send him child sexual abuse material (CSAM),” reads a DOJ press release. “In communications with other online users, Gonzalez also discussed extorting his minor victims by, among other things, threatening to send sexually explicit images to the victims’ families.”
A kidnapped 11-year-old girl was allegedly found in the bed of a Long Island, New York, man police claim she met online, according to prosecutors. Prosecutors in Suffolk County claim that Nicholas Wieber, 28, entered not guilty pleas to two counts of kidnapping and one count of child endangerment during his arraignment on Friday, January […]
Adds the DOJ: “Based on Gonzalez’s online activities, his coercion and enticement of minors to create CSAM and self-harm videos, law enforcement believes Gonzalez is associated with nihilistic violent extremist ideology such as ‘764.’”
764 has operated on an international scale since 2021, when it broke away from the CVLT network.
While some have described 764 as a “Satanic neo-Nazi cult,” investigations have shown most members have a misanthropic worldview as well as sadistic tendencies that drive their online activities.
764 has been described as a terror network by the United States Department of Justice and is considered a terrorist “tier one” investigative matter by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In Canada, 764 is designated a terrorist group.
Both men are being held without bond. Neither has been asked to enter a plea. Information on their defense attorneys, whether appointed or retained, was unavailable Monday, February 23.
Parents, teachers, and guardians interested in learning more about protecting children from exploitation can find useful tools and information at Know2Protect.
