At some point after his release in March 2020, Almeida moved to a relative’s apartment in Queens, New York. His social media posts on Instagram and Facebook from that era show a young man enamored with firearms, drugs, threats of violence, the Order of Nine Angles, and child abuse. In several posts, he poses shirtless with a friend while toting a shotgun, wears a skull mask balaclava associated with murderous neo-Nazi groups, and brandishes a handgun at the camera while smoking what appears to be narcotics from a glass pipe.
In late February 2021, according to court records, Almeida posted a photograph of a bound, gagged, and half-dressed young girl with the caption: “Life’s always been shit still I see the past through rose colored lenses.”
Almeida’s online activity grew alarming enough that a warning about his conduct made its way to the FBI by September 2021, according to FBI records. A tipster warned the Bureau that Almeida had allegedly posted pictures of children in bondage wear, threatened to kill other users, had met up with a 16-year-old in person, and was potentially targeting other minors sexually.
In October 2021, as 764’s notoriety online grew following Cadenhead’s arrest, the FBI received another tip about Almeida’s prior criminal conduct and alleged possession of firearms: “He consistently posts animal abuse material and has even posted images of himself having abused an animal by chopping it in half. He is extremely dangerous. He openly admits what he wants to do to children, posts his drug use online, and even posts child abuse material.”
That fall, the Feds allege, Almeida posted images on Instagram of himself posing with a handgun next to a flag of Tempel ov Blood—an American offshoot of O9A run by longtime FBI informant Joshua Caleb Sutter—and a photo of himself in front of a Nazi flag and a computer screen reading, “I’m addicted to hardcore child pornography,” while wearing a shirt emblazoned with “kiddie fiddler.” Telegram posts recovered by an FBI employee showed Almeida posing with a handgun and more O9A indicia, including a flag, and a book, The Sinister Tradition.
Almeida’s apparent possession of a firearm was enough to substantiate initial federal criminal charges against him, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms took him into custody following a November 2021 raid on the Queens apartment. A 9-mm handgun, ammunition, the skull mask balaclava, four electronic devices, and an Order of Nine Angles “blood pact” were seized from Almeida’s room. Investigators say his devices held hundreds of thousands of digital files, including reams of CSAM and communications with other members of 764. This is the first public documentation of the FBI’s glimpse into the child abuse network Cadenhead had founded, despite Discord’s report about the group to the Bureau in 2021.
Digital forensics of Almeida’s online traces show he groomed “multiple minor victims, from whom he solicited CSAM and whom he encouraged to engage in sexual acts,” according to an October 2023 court filing to substantiate superseding charges of child abuse, coercion and CSAM possession.
The Feds allege that, using Facebook and Instagram, Almeida groomed an underage girl between July and December 2021, sending her explicit images of himself and convincing her to produce and send CSAM of herself. His digital traces, the Feds claim, also show Almeida grooming another minor from February 2020 through November 2021 over “cellphone messages” and in person. He allegedly convinced this second girl to produce CSAM of herself, engage in sexual acts with him, and worse: “The defendant held Jane Doe-2 at gunpoint while posing for a photograph, and he convinced Jane Doe-2 to cut her neck to allow the defendant to drink her blood. The defendant instructed Jane Doe-2 to study 764 doctrine and to distribute CSAM to others.”