(NewsNation) — A decentralized extremist network known as “764,” already notorious for targeting young people online for abuse, has been linked with increasingly high-profile crimes or criminal plots across the U.S., a former FBI special agent tells NewsNation.

Federal authorities are examining hundreds of cases for potential ties to 764, including the deadly Jan. 22 shooting at Antioch High School in Nashville; the May 19 bombing of a Palm Springs, Calif., fertility clinic; an arson spree in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in June; and a series of swatting incidents at colleges this fall.

NewsNation national security contributor Tracy Walder says investigators are also exploring whether the network was behind the recent terrorism-related arrests of young suspects in Michigan and New Jersey.

“It really is bigger than what a lot of people think,” Walder said of 764.

The moniker refers to the Texas zip code of a Texas teen who is believed to have founded the group to victimize other young people through sextortion and coercion, but the burgeoning group’s goals appear to have grown into larger-scale attempts to disrupt society.

“This was really formed to fill that sort of vacuum during COVID of young boys between the ages of 10 to 17,” said Walder, who formerly worked in the CIA and FBI.

Today, the movement has gone international, she said, with predators using online platforms like Discord and Telegram to victimize or radicalize others in chat rooms.

“The problem with those chat rooms: You have to be invited because you know someone in those chat rooms. So, as a parent that is incredibly difficult to track, just from a web perspective,” Walder said.