The FBI wants him badly enough to put $25,000 on his name — and they believe he’s already left the country.
Austin Jan Sy Yatco, a former resident of Plano, Texas, is the subject of an active federal manhunt after being charged with some of the most serious child exploitation offenses federal law recognizes. Authorities believe he’s now in the Philippines, but that hasn’t stopped the FBI from pressing hard for his capture. A federal arrest warrant was issued on January 23, 2026, in the Eastern District of New York, charging Yatco with conspiracy to produce child sexual abuse material — commonly referred to as CSAM — as well as conspiracy to receive and distribute it. The case is part of a broader, deeply disturbing pattern of organized online predation that federal investigators say has been festering for years across gaming platforms and social media.
Inside ‘Greggy’s Cult’
What investigators describe isn’t some lone predator operating in the shadows. Yatco is allegedly a member of a coordinated online network known as “Greggy’s Cult” — a group that, according to federal authorities, deliberately targets vulnerable individuals across the world. The network’s alleged activities read like a catalog of human depravity: production of child sexual abuse material, encouragement of self-harm and suicide attempts, animal cruelty, and what investigators describe as sibling exploitation. These weren’t random crimes of opportunity. This was organized, reported CBS News Texas — a network that allegedly weaponized the anonymity of online gaming and social media to reach children in ways that are still being fully untangled.
Yatco’s alleged conduct spans roughly 2019 to 2021, though investigators have not suggested the broader network’s activity has necessarily stopped. He has known ties to Plano but is believed to have fled the United States, with the Philippines identified as his likely current location. The FBI is offering $25,000 for information leading to his arrest — a reward that signals just how seriously the bureau is treating this case.
R. Joseph Rothrock, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Dallas field office, didn’t mince words. “We are committed to apprehending Austin Yatco, bringing justice to his victims, and preventing future abuse,” Rothrock said, urging anyone with information to come forward. Tips can be submitted anonymously through 1-800-CALL-FBI, the Dallas Field Office at (972) 559-5000, tips.fbi.gov, or through any U.S. Embassy or Consulate abroad — a detail that underscores the international dimension of the pursuit.
The Yatco Case Isn’t Isolated
Here’s the uncomfortable context: this is happening against a backdrop of relentless child exploitation activity that federal and local law enforcement in North Texas have been fighting — with increasing urgency — for years. The Yatco case is alarming on its own. But zoom out, and the picture gets darker still.
In a separate, high-profile case, Donald Eugene Fields II, 60, was arrested in Florida after spending nearly two years on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. Fields had been wanted since May 2023 for allegedly trafficking underage girls between 2013 and 2017. His capture, while a clear win for investigators, was a reminder of just how long these cases can drag on — and how far predators will go to stay hidden.
Closer to home, a Plano-based sex trafficking operation led by William Garland was dismantled after an FBI raid that turned up nearly 250 pieces of evidence — hotel bookings, photographs, and an extraordinary cache of 80 firearms. Garland and four co-defendants were convicted for running a coercion operation between 2020 and 2023 that allegedly involved beatings, tasers, and deliberate humiliation of victims. All five now face up to life in prison, according to coverage of the case.
Operation Soteria Shield: A Sweeping Response
How bad has it gotten in North Texas? Bad enough to mobilize 70 law enforcement agencies in a single coordinated sweep. Operation Soteria Shield, led by the FBI’s Dallas field office, resulted in the rescue of 109 children and the arrest of 244 individuals on child exploitation charges — many of whom had been using social media and online gaming platforms to identify and groom victims. Investigators seized terabytes of child abuse material in the process. That’s not gigabytes. Terabytes.
The scale of it is staggering, and it reflects a grim reality that law enforcement has been reluctant to sugarcoat: online platforms remain dangerously fertile ground for predators, and the pipeline from gaming chat rooms to exploitation is shorter than most parents realize.
A National Reckoning
The Yatco manhunt also fits within a sweeping national enforcement push. Operation Restore Justice, an FBI-led initiative, resulted in the arrest of more than 205 child sex abuse offenders across the country, with related indictments and plea agreements secured in Texas as part of the broader effort. The Department of Justice framed it as a signal — to offenders and to the public — that federal resources are being trained on this problem with a level of focus that isn’t going away.
Still, for every arrest, there’s at least one more name on a wanted poster. Yatco remains at large. His victims, wherever they are, are waiting. And the FBI, by all appearances, is not done looking.
A $25,000 reward and an international manhunt for a man who allegedly exploited children through a video game chat group — if that doesn’t capture just how strange and relentless this fight has become, nothing will.
