Peters Township, a rural hamlet southeast of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was rocked Friday morning with the arrest of 18-year-old high school senior Zachariah Meyers, who faces more than 300 felony charges after police accused him of operating a “large-scale criminal network” involving catfishing and sex extortion.

At least 14 boys aged 14 to 17 were allegedly lured into Meyers’ scheme to send him nude photos and sex videos, which he used to blackmail the minors.

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Meyers was charged with trafficking in minors, sexual extortion, unlawful contact with a minor, distribution of child sexual abuse material, criminal use of a communication facility, and more following his arrest. He remains in the Washington County jail after the judge in his case denied bail, deeming Meyers a flight risk and danger to the community.

Peters Township School District leaders sent a message to parents on Friday afternoon assuring them “there is no immediate risk to schools” following the high school senior’s arrest.

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In court on Friday, Meyers’ mother told the judge that her son has never been in trouble with the law, WPXI Pittsburgh reported. She said he serves as class president, is a member of the honor society and volleyball team, and is an Eagle Scout. He wants to be a chef, she added.

Meyers was arrested Friday morning at his family’s home after police executed a search warrant of the property. They discovered evidence on Meyers’ phone linking him to social media accounts associated with the crimes.

Myers’ sex extortion scheme swept up close to two dozen underage male students at the school, police said.

They first became aware of the scheme on December 5, police said. Officers interviewed 30 underage boys and identified at least 21 victims, aged 14 to 17. All of the victims reported being lured over social media platforms, including Snapchat and TikTok.

Meyers assembled multiple false social media accounts using images from around the internet, investigators said, including a popular Dutch adult performer’s. Meyers’ victims believed they were communicating with an attractive young woman in most cases, police said. Other aliases included a man from Arizona and an unidentified woman.

Meyers then asked for and exchanged nude photos with the teens under the guise of the false profiles. After obtaining the images of the boys, he then allegedly used threats of sharing the nudes with family and friends to coerce them to record themselves on video.

At least 14 boys sent sexualized video material of themselves to Meyers. One was blackmailed into secretly filming inside the high school’s boys’ wrestling locker room, where ten students were recorded in various states of undress and talking with each other on six separate occasions.

When one victim stopped sending him nude pics, Meyers reportedly told him, “I need smth to keep my silence,” using internet slang for “something.”

The 15-year-old victim said he was then forced to pose as an adult and lure two different men on a gay dating app to have sex with him. Meyers demanded that the victim provide videotaped evidence of the encounters.

Meyers sought payments of $500 from at least two victims in exchange for not sharing photos of them. When one refused to pay, the victim’s sister received an Instagram message containing a naked photo of the student.  

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