In one of the most prolific murder cases ever prosecuted, a teenage “serial swatter” pleaded guilty Wednesday to making menacing threats against schools, religious institutions and government officials over mass shootings and bombings across the country.
Alan Filion, 18, of Lancaster, California, pleaded guilty to four counts of interstate threatening, the U.S. Department of Justice said. Filion faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison on each charge, federal prosecutors said.
Between August 2022 and January, Filion made more than 375 swats and threats, including calls claiming to have planted bombs, threatened to detonate bombs or carry out mass shootings, officials said.
He became a “serial swatter” for profit and entertainment, according to court documents. Prosecutors say he turned swatting into a business by advertising his swatting services on social media for a fee.
Authorities said he was responsible for hundreds of swatting incidents across the country, including in Maryland, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Washington and Texas.
Filion was 16 when he made most of the calls that targeted high schools, colleges, government officials, religious institutions and the homes of FBI agents, prosecutors said.
“He caused deep fear and chaos,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in the statement.
Attorneys listed for Filion in the lawsuits could not immediately be reached Wednesday afternoon.
In January 2023, Filion was extradited to Florida from California after crashing a mosque in Sanford, Florida, months earlier. Prosecutors said Filion targeted the Masjid Al Hayy mosque and threatened to carry out a mass shooting. The Seminole County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI tracked the teen’s messages on Telegram offering his swatting services, as well as recordings of swatting calls.
In the Sanford incident, Filion claimed he had an illegally modified AR-15, a Glock 17 pistol, pipe bombs and Molotov cocktails, prosecutors said. Filion said he would “commit a mass shooting” and “kill everyone” at short notice, prosecutors said.
“He claimed in an online post dated January 19, 2023 that his ‘first’ swat was ‘2 to 3 years ago’ and that ‘6-9 months ago’ [he] decided to turn it into a business,” prosecutors said, noting that Filion posted on social media advertising his services.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
