In maybe the biggest swatting case to ever be prosecuted, an 18-year-old from Lancaster, California, has pleaded responsible to federal fees stemming from a nationwide spree of lots of of taking pictures and bomb menace hoaxes that despatched police scrambling to excessive faculties, courthouses, and the houses of legislation enforcement officers.
Alan Winston Filion now faces a most penalty of 5 years in jail for every of 4 counts of constructing interstate threats to injure the individual of one other, in line with the United States Division of Justice.
Early this 12 months, Filion was arrested and extradited to Seminole County, Florida. On the time, state prosecutors charged Filion with 4 state-level felony counts stemming from a single incident wherein, prosecutors allege, Filion instructed a Sanford Police Division dispatcher that he was armed with pipe bombs and an AR-15 rifle and was strolling into Masjid Al Hayy Mosque to kill everybody he noticed.
Filion, whom authorities imagine operated on-line as “Torswats,” has been in jail and not using a trial for almost a 12 months. He entered a plea of not responsible to the state fees.
The federal fees introduced on Wednesday, together with interviews from folks linked to the investigation—and Filion himself—allege his swatting actions reached far past Florida’s borders.
In line with the plea settlement, between roughly August 2022 to January 2024 Filion made greater than 375 swatting calls. These included incidents the place he claimed to have planted bombs or threatened to conduct mass shootings at focused areas that included non secular establishments, excessive faculties, and traditionally black faculties and universities.
“This prosecution and at present’s responsible plea reaffirm the Justice Division’s dedication to utilizing all instruments to carry accountable each particular person who endangers our communities via swatting and hoax threats,” deputy lawyer normal Lisa Monaco stated in an announcement. “For properly over a 12 months, Alan Filion focused non secular establishments, faculties, authorities officers, and different harmless victims with lots of of false threats of imminent mass shootings, bombings, and different violent crimes. He prompted profound worry and chaos and can now face the results of his actions.”
The case in opposition to Filion, first reported by WIRED, was constructed on a path of digital proof left throughout platforms like Telegram, YouTube, and Discord, and pieced collectively by Brad “Cafrozed” Dennis, a personal investigator. Dennis had been employed by two high-profile Twitch stars, each victims of Torswats’ calls, to search out the individual accountable.
