Nihilistic Violent Extremist Arrest in Washington State

Dec 6

Executive Summary

Federal prosecutors have charged 23 year old Washington State resident Joseph Pacheco with distributing child sexual abuse material, transmitting repeated death threats to a minor in Massachusetts, and sharing videos of animals being crushed. According to the indictment, Pacheco’s online activity and messages reflected the goals of Nihilistic Violent Extremists, or NVEs, who seek to collapse society by spreading chaos, extreme violence, and moral corruption, often by targeting minors online. This arrest shows how NVE style actors blend child exploitation, sadism, and threats of murder to groom and control young victims, and it connects directly to a wider online ecosystem where “no lives matter” networks publish grooming manuals, murder guides, and explosives instructions.

Analysis

The Pacheco case is another example of how NVE aligned offenders use the internet to find, isolate, and terrorize minors, mixing sexual exploitation and brutal violence with explicit threats to kill. NVEs are not tied to one clear ideology like jihadism or classic white supremacy; instead they promote a worldview where human life has no value, and where spreading suffering and social breakdown is the main goal.

Federal prosecutors say Pacheco distributed child sexual abuse material to a Massachusetts minor and sent multiple messages threatening to murder the victim and, at one point, the victim’s entire family. His threats included “I will kill you if you ever leave me,” “I have your address and I’ll commit a murder suicide,” and “I’ll f***ing kill you… kill your whole family,” tying his control over the victim to violence and fear.
The indictment says Pacheco also distributed “animal crushing” videos, where animals are intentionally harmed or killed for sexual or sadistic gratification, a common feature of the shock and gore culture seen in NVE circles.
Investigators state that his communications and social media presence “espoused goals shared by Nihilistic Violent Extremists,” a label the government uses for loose networks that want to bring about social collapse by normalizing sadism, sexual exploitation, and extreme violence, especially among youth online.
This case fits a pattern seen in previous reporting on NVE networks like “No Lives Matter” (NLM), 1414, MKU, MSK, and “764,” which combine grooming, blackmail, and extreme violence with do it yourself terror tradecraft. These groups present themselves as “children of fire” or “no lives matter” and publish manuals on grooming minors, coercing self harm, conducting “manhunts,” and building explosives, making exploitation and violence into a kind of game or lifestyle.

NLM and 1414 documents describe step by step grooming and extortion of minors, especially girls, telling members how to build emotional dependency, obtain intimate images, and then force victims to self harm or perform degrading acts under threat of exposure, swatting, or doxxing. Groomers are encouraged to view themselves as “gods” who “own” their victims.
NLM and related brands publish “manhunt” and “kill” guides that explain how to pick targets, use knives and blunt weapons, avoid leaving forensic traces, and even adapt vehicle attack and stabbing graphics borrowed from ISIS propaganda, all framed by slogans like “kill the mundane” and “no lives matter.”
A linked set of explosives and grenade manuals under the NLM name describes basic improvised explosive devices, grenades, and bombs, again blending misanthropic slogans with concrete how to content that lowers the barrier for lone actor violence.
The “764” network, which federal authorities have described as an NVE group, recruits online, grooms minors, and uses child sexual abuse material, animal torture, and extreme violence as currency and leverage. Arrests of 764 members in the United States and abroad show the real world danger when this subculture moves from talk to action.

Pacheco’s alleged behavior—sharing child sexual abuse material, distributing animal crushing videos, and issuing repeated threats of murder tied to control over a minor victim—is consistent with this broader NVE pattern. Even though he is charged as an individual, the government’s description places him inside the same kind of nihilistic online environment where harming children, glorifying death, and fantasizing about killing are normal and encouraged.

NVEs are distinct in that they do not always pursue a clear political goal or coherent ideology. Instead they champion collapse and chaos for its own sake, often mixing bits of neo Nazi, occult, or internet meme culture with a core belief that “nothing matters” and that causing pain is both entertainment and purpose.
Their activity blurs the line between child exploitation, sadistic entertainment, and terrorism, because the same grooming and control methods used to produce abuse material can also be used to push victims, especially minors, toward self harm or violence.
This makes them a difficult and evolving threat: they may not call for large scale attacks like traditional terrorist groups but instead spread a culture that encourages lone actors and small conspirators to commit unpredictable acts of extreme harm.

The Pacheco arrest, brought under Project Safe Childhood, underscores that child exploitation cases can be part of a wider violent extremism problem, not separate from it. As NVE networks continue to share manuals, channels, and branding online, law enforcement is likely to bring more cases that sit at the intersection of child abuse, sadism, and extremist violence. At the same time, because these networks are decentralized and often organized around anonymous handles and small groups, disrupting them will remain challenging even as high profile arrests occur.