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| category | tags | start | location | created | updated | summary | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crime Investigation |
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2025 | International (Europol ECTC) | 2026-05-21 | 2026-05-21 | Project Compass is a Europol-coordinated 28-country law enforcement operation against the Com network and its 764 subgroup, launched in January 2025, that by February 2026 had produced 30 arrests and identified 179 perpetrators. |
Project Compass is a coordinated law enforcement operation led by Europol's European Counter Terrorism Centre (ECTC) targeting The Com and its subgroup 764 Network, launched in January 2025. As of its first formal operational results announcement on February 27, 2026, the operation had resulted in 30 arrests, the identification of 179 perpetrators, the identification of 62 victims, and the direct safeguarding of 4 victims across 28 participating countries. Project Compass is the largest coordinated multinational law enforcement operation targeting the Com network documented in public reporting.1
Scope and Structure
Project Compass is structured as an ongoing operational framework rather than a single coordinated raid, producing rolling arrests across participating countries as individual investigations mature. The 28 participating countries include the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and multiple European Union member states. The operation is coordinated through Europol's ECTC, which provides intelligence analysis, secure information sharing, and operational coordination for national law enforcement agencies.
The operation targets the full Com ecosystem including The Com network's three operational pillars (cybercrime, sextortion, and offline violence), 764 and its 764 Inferno inner cell, and related splinter networks including No Lives Matter, Kaskar, and other documented Com subgroups.2
Documented Arrests
Among the individuals arrested in connection with Project Compass or in concurrent national operations coordinated through Europol:
- Leonidas Varagiannis (21, alleged 764 Inferno leader) - arrested Greece April 2025
- Prasan Nepal (20, alleged 764 Inferno leader) - arrested North Carolina April 2025
- Tony Christopher Long - indicted Eastern District of California October 2025
- Alexis Aldair Chavez - federal plea to RICO charges December 2025
- Jeffrey Roussel - charged Quebec City April 2026
Additional arrests in the United States and internationally were announced as part of the February 2026 results without naming individual defendants.1
Footnotes
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Europol. "Project Compass: First operational results against Com network." February 27, 2026. https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/project-compass-first-operational-results-against-com-network; BleepingComputer. "Police crackdown on The Com cybercrime gang leads to 30 arrests." https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/police-crackdown-on-the-com-cybercrime-gang-leads-to-30-arrests/ ↩︎
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CyberScoop. "Project Compass: Europol's sustained campaign against The Com." https://cyberscoop.com/project-compass-the-com-europol/ ↩︎