A 17-year-old minor, alleged leader of the neo-Nazi network 764 in Spain, arrested, accused of threatening Irene Montero with death

The Ertzaintza, the Mossos d'Esquadra, and the Guardia Civil reported this Sunday the arrest in Gipuzkoa of a 17-year-old minor accused of threatening Irene Montero with death. Investigators consider him the main reference in Spain for 764, an ultraviolent transnational network that recruits teenagers online and combines neo-Nazism with Satanism, sexual exploitation, and the glorification of violence.

The arrest occurred on July 16 after several months of joint investigation. Agents searched two properties linked to the minor and seized numerous electronic devices, storage media, and documentation related to his activity within 764. The Juvenile Section of the San Sebastián Court of First Instance ordered his preventive internment in a specialized center.

Sources close to the investigation consulted by the media outlet 'El País' attribute to the detainee the threats received at the beginning of the year by the Podemos MEP and the talk show host Sarah Santaolalla. The message addressed to Montero pointed to her home, where her children and partner live, and announced that she would be murdered there. "He says he is going to murder me in my house," the leader explained after filing a complaint and requesting protection from the Ministry of Interior.

Investigators also link the minor to threats sent between January and April against schools, city councils, libraries, social associations, leisure centers, and public bodies. The messages announced shootings and armed attacks and, in some cases, promised to broadcast the murders so that other members of the network could watch them. The attacks did not materialize but forced the deployment of extraordinary security measures.

From digital hate to threats against Podemos

The threat against Montero came after years of harassment against the leader and other members of Podemos, including repeated concentrations in front of the family home she shared with Pablo Iglesias. Four days after the MEP's complaint was made public, Podem Catalunya warned of threats against its headquarters and the attack suffered by the vehicle of its coordinator, María Pozuelo, near her home. The messages were then linked to another neo-Nazi organization related to 764.

Montero placed that intimidation within the political violence endured by numerous feminist women with a public presence. During the 8M demonstration, she expressly mentioned Santaolalla and assured that the threats sought to expel them from that space. The investigation now known links the same minor to the messages directed against both.

The 764 network was born in the United States in 2021 and has grown from a small virtual community to an international structure with a presence in several countries. Its members locate vulnerable minors and young people on social networks, messaging applications, and video game platforms, where they initiate contact through seemingly harmless relationships before moving them to private groups.

In these spaces, the recruiters resort to blackmail, sextortion, and psychological manipulation to subjugate their victims. The investigations attribute to the detainee his participation in communities where minors were induced to self-harm and perform acts of extreme humiliation, which were later recorded and disseminated as a demonstration of the control exerted over them.

The young man is also accused of using doxing and swatting techniques against at least two people residing in Euskadi and Catalonia. Through the dissemination of private data and false emergency calls, the aggressors sought to provoke police interventions at the homes of their victims, endanger them, and divert the attention of investigators.

Canada declared 764 a terrorist entity in December and various international organizations maintain open investigations into its relationship with child sexual exploitation, self-harm, animal abuse, and extreme violence. The devices seized in Gipuzkoa remain under police analysis, while the minor remains interned by court order and the investigation remains open.