(AP) – A California teenager pleaded guilty Wednesday in a case involving a swatting incident at a Florida mosque, among other locations and individuals, federal prosecutors said.
Alan W. Filion, 18, of Lancaster, California, pleaded guilty to four counts of interstate threats to injure another person, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida said in a news release. He faces up to five years in prison on each charge. A sentencing date has not yet been set.
Swatting is the practice of making a false call to emergency services in order to cause a large number of armed police officers to be dispatched to a specific address.
Bomb threats go back decades in the U.S., but swatting has become especially popular in recent years as individuals and groups target celebrities and politicians.
“For more than a year, Alan Filion directed his false threats of mass shootings, bombings, and other violent crimes toward religious institutions, schools, government officials, and other innocent victims. “He caused deep fear and chaos and will now face the consequences of his actions,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a press release.
FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate said Filion intended to cause as much damage as possible and attempted to monetize it by offering paid swatting services.
“Swatting poses a serious danger to first responders and victims, wastes significant time and resources, and creates fear in communities. “The FBI will continue to work with its partners to aggressively investigate and hold accountable anyone who engages in these activities,” Abbate said.
The U.S. attorney general’s office said Filion made more than 375 swatting and threatening calls from August 2022 to January 2024. Among those calls, he included threats to have placed bombs in specific locations or to detonate bombs and /or carry out mass shootings in those places, prosecutors said.
Filion targeted religious institutions, high schools, colleges and universities, government officials, and individuals throughout the United States. He was 16 when he made most of the calls.
Filion also pleaded guilty to making three other threatening calls, including one in October 2022 to a public high school in the Western District of Washington, in which he threatened to carry out a mass shooting and claimed to have planted bombs throughout the school. .
He also pleaded guilty to a May 2023 call to a historically black college in the Northern District of Florida, in which he claimed to have placed bombs in the walls and ceilings of the residence halls, which would detonate within about an hour.
Another incident was a call in July 2023 to a local police dispatch number in the Western District of Texas, in which he falsely identified himself as a senior federal law enforcement officer and provided the officer’s home address to the operator, he said. having killed the officer’s mother and threatened to kill any police officer who responded.
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