In perhaps the largest swatting case ever prosecuted, an 18-year-old from Lancaster, California, has pleaded guilty to federal charges stemming from a nationwide wave of violence. hundreds of hoaxes about shootings and bomb threats sending police scrambling to high schools, courthouses and the homes of law enforcement officers.
Alan Winston Filion now faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison on each of four charges of making interstate threats to injure the person of another, police said. United States Department of Justice.
At the beginning of this year, Filion was too arrested and extradited to Seminole County, Florida. At the time, prosecutors charged Filion with four state-level crimes stemming from a single incident in which, prosecutors allege, Filion told a Sanford Police Department dispatcher that he was armed with pipe bombs and an AR-15 rifle and told police walked in. Masjid Al Hayy Mosque to kill everyone he saw.
Filion, who according to authorities operated online as ‘Torswats’, has been in prison without trial for almost a year. He pleaded not guilty.
The federal charges announced Wednesday, along with interviews from people involved in the investigation — and Filion himself — allege his swatting activities extended far beyond Florida’s borders.
According to the plea agreement, Filion made more than 375 swatting calls between approximately August 2022 and January 2024. These include incidents in which he claimed to have planted bombs or threatened to carry out mass shootings at targeted locations, including religious institutions, high schools and historically black colleges and universities.
“This prosecution and today’s guilty verdict reaffirms the Department of Justice’s commitment to using all tools to hold accountable every individual who endangers our communities through swatting and hoax threats,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco in a statement. “For over a year, Alan Filion targeted religious institutions, schools, government officials, and other innocent victims with hundreds of false threats of impending mass shootings, bombings, and other violent crimes. He caused deep fear and chaos and will now face the consequences of his actions.
The case against Filion, first reported by WIREDis built on a trail of digital evidence left on platforms such as Telegram, YouTube and Discord, and compiled by Brad “Cafrozed” Dennis, a private investigator. Dennis was hired by two high-profile Twitch stars, both victims of Torswats’ calls, to find the person responsible.