A Lancaster teen accused of making hundreds of swatting calls and offering swatting-for-a-fee services pleaded guilty as part of a plea agreement.
Alan W. Filion, 18, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Florida to four counts of making interstate threats to injure the person of another. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison on each count.
From August 2022 to January 2024, Filion placed more than 375 swatting and threat calls, according to prosecutors. Some of the calls included bomb and shooting threats to religious institutions, high schools, colleges and universities, government officials, and individuals across the United States.
Filion, 16 at the time most of the calls were placed, sought to trigger a large-scale law enforcement and emergency response to the locations, prosecutors said. In some swatting cases, officers entered locations with weapons drawn and detained people, the Department of Justice said.
Get top local stories in Southern California delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC LA's News Headlines newsletter.
Filioni also posted ads on social media for fee-based swatting services, prosecutors said.
“Alan Filion not only intended to cause as much harm as possible, but he also attempted to profit from these criminal activities by offering swatting-for-a-fee services,” said FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate. “Swatting poses severe danger to first responders and victims, wastes significant time and resources, and creates fear in communities. The FBI will continue to work with partners to aggressively investigate and hold accountable anyone who engages in these activities."
He was arrested Jan. 18 in California on Florida state charges stemming from a May 2023 threat he made to a religious institution, authorities said. Filion claimed claimed to have an illegally modified AR-15, a Glock 17 pistol, pipe bombs, and Molotov cocktails, according to the DOJ.
Local
Get Los Angeles's latest local news on crime, entertainment, weather, schools, COVID, cost of living and more. Here's your go-to source for today's LA news.
He said that he was going to imminently "commit a mass shooting" and "kill everyone" he saw, court documents state.
Filion pleaded guilty Wednesday to making that threat and three other threatening calls, including those targeting a Washingon high school; a historically Black college in Florida; and a call to a local police department dispatch number in Texas, in which he falsely identified himself as a senior federal law enforcement officer, provided the officer's residential address to the dispatcher, claimed to have killed his mother, and threatened to kill any responding police officers, according to the DOJ.
A sentencing date has not been scheduled.
“This prosecution and today’s guilty plea reaffirm the Justice Department’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. “For well over a year, Alan Filion targeted religious institutions, schools, government officials, and other innocent victims with hundreds of false threats of imminent mass shootings, bombings and other violent crimes. He caused profound fear and chaos and will now face the consequences of his actions."
