Europol Pulls 4,340 Links Tied to 'The Com' Extortion Network
A nine-country push targets an online ecosystem that grooms minors, spreads violence manuals, and has been linked to ransomware attacks on Marks & Spencer and Las Vegas casinos.
Key points
- Europol flagged 4,340 web addresses for removal between June and July 2026, in a coordinated push against content produced by a network called The Com.
- Nine countries took part: Belgium, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.
- The Com is a loose online network that grooms minors into self-harm, sexual abuse imagery and violence, often through blackmail.
- Project Compass, a year-long investigation, has produced 30 arrests and 179 identified suspects across 28 countries, with 62 victims identified.
- Groups tied to The Com have been linked to ransomware attacks on Las Vegas casinos in 2023 and on Marks & Spencer, Co-op and Harrods in 2025.
Europol has flagged 4,340 web pages for takedown in a multi-week operation against material produced by a loose network known as The Com. Nine European countries took part, running what Europol called "Referral Action Days" from June to July 2026. Organised by Europol's EU Internet Referral Unit and Spain's Intelligence Centre against Terrorism and Organised Crime, it sits under the European Commission's ProtectEU counterterrorism plan.
What is The Com?
The Com isn't a single group. Europol describes it as a decentralised online community, short for "Community," where factions with different goals overlap. Some push accelerationist politics, meaning ideologies aimed at speeding the collapse of society. Others focus on cybercrime or the sexual extortion of children.
Recruitment happens on social media, gaming platforms and messaging apps. Targets, often teenagers, get pulled into private chats where members pressure them into self-harm, filming abuse, or handing over intimate images used as blackmail.
What kind of content was removed?
The flagged URLs hosted violent videos, child sexual abuse material (illegal imagery of minors), animal cruelty and footage of real-world attacks. Europol also pointed to circulated "manuals": step-by-step guides on grooming children, making improvised explosives, doxing (publishing someone's private details online) and swatting (making a fake emergency call to send armed police to a victim's address).
One recurring format members call a "manhunt" involves filmed street attacks on strangers, shared for status inside the group.
How is The Com organised?
Europol splits the network into four rough subgroups. The breakdown was first laid out in a February announcement, also covered by BleepingComputer.
| Subgroup | Focus |
|---|---|
| Offline Com | Property damage, physical violence, terrorism |
| Cyber Com | Network intrusions and ransomware |
| (S)extortion Com | Coercing minors into sexual content and self-harm |
| 764 | Grooming young people into producing explicit material for blackmail |
Two alleged 764 leaders, Prasan Nepal (20) and Leonidas Varagiannis (21), were arrested in April 2025 and face life sentences in the United States for running an international child exploitation ring. We've tracked 764 in four stories since first covering the subgroup on 24 July 2026.
How does this link to major ransomware attacks?
Cyber Com, the hacking wing, has been connected to some of the largest ransomware incidents of the past two years. Ransomware is malicious software that locks a company's files until a payment is made. Investigators have tied people in this orbit to the September 2023 breaches of Las Vegas casino operators and to the April 2025 attacks on UK retailers Marks & Spencer, Co-op and Harrods.
The wider investigation, Project Compass, launched in January 2025 and pulls in law enforcement from 28 countries. It's produced 30 arrests, 179 identified suspects and 62 identified victims.
Should you worry about your teenagers?
Europol warns the group's messages hide behind coded language and emojis adults often miss. A few practical steps:
- Talk to teenagers about sextortion directly, and make clear they won't be punished for coming forward.
- Treat unsolicited friend requests on gaming platforms and Discord-style chats with suspicion.
- If a minor is being blackmailed with intimate images, report it to national police and the platform. In the US, the FBI runs a dedicated sextortion tip line; in the UK, the Internet Watch Foundation and CEOP take reports.
Coerced victims aren't the criminals here, and prosecutors have said so repeatedly. The pattern to watch is whether Project Compass translates its 179 identified suspects into charges at anything like that scale: identification and prosecution are very different things.
