An 18-year-old teen from California has pleaded guilty to federal charges stemming from making hundreds of swatting calls between 2022 and early 2024.
Alan W. Filion, an 18-year-old Lancaster resident, pleaded guilty to four counts of making interstate threats to injure the person of another. Each count carries a five-year prison sentence.
In the plea agreement, the department said Filion made more than 375 swatting calls in the two-year period. His calls targeted religious institutions like mosques, as well as schools and government officials.
Filion is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 11, 2025, according to a press release from the US Department of Justice.
What Is Swatting?
Swatting is a dangerous and illegal practice that involves making false emergency reports to law enforcement agencies with the intent of provoking a large-scale response of armed police officers to a specific location. Depending on the gravity of the report, a SWAT team may be mobilized and deployed to the residence.
Swatting can be harmful, especially to innocent victims who have no idea what's going on. Authorities can impose lockdowns or alerts due to swatting hoaxes. It will also drain resources and tax money that could have been used to combat real threats.
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What Did Filion Target?
Earlier this year, authorities arrested Filion for telling a Sanford Police Department dispatcher that he was walking into the Masjid Al Hayy Mosque in Florida armed with pipe bombs and an AR-15 rifle.
Between December 2023 and January 2024, Filion was part of an international swatting group that targeted high-profile individuals. The victims include US Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-GA; Sen. Rick Scott, R-FL; Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas; and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency director Jen Easterly, WIRED reported, citing court records. He also targeted a former president of the United States whose identity had not been publicly revealed.
In August, the Department of Justice charged Europeans Tomasz Szabo and Nemanja Radovanovic in connection with a widespread swatting operation that led to one car accident with injuries. Investigators later discovered that Filion orchestrated that scheme, supplying the two men with their targets and information.
