A California man pleaded guilty Wednesday in Florida to making hundreds of “swatting” calls across the United States, according to the Department of Justice.
In a news release, DOJ officials said the man — Alan Filion, 18 — admitted to making over 375 swatting and threat calls from August 2022 to January 2024.
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Filion, then 17 years old, was arrested earlier this year after deputies said he placed a 911 call to a mosque in Sanford, threatening to conduct a mass shooting.
“I just finished reading the Devil’s Quran. I’m going to (unintelligible) and commit a mass shooting at 786 Myrtle Street in Sanford,” Filion said during the 911 call. “It is a false mosque that prays to the Demiurge Saturn.”
[LISTEN TO THE 911 CALL IN THE AUDIO PLAYER BELOW]
Aside from the mosque, DOJ investigators said Filion threatened to detonate bombs or conduct mass shootings at other targets, including religious institutions, high schools, colleges, government officials and “numerous individuals” across the country.
“Filion intended for his calls to cause large-scale deployment of police and emergency-services units to the targeted locations,” the release reads. “During these calls, he provided information to law enforcement and emergency services agencies that he knew to be false.”
During the time that Filion placed these calls, dispatchers were unavailable to help respond to other emergencies, and law enforcement officers were needlessly dispatched to these target locations, DOJ officials said.
“In some instances, armed law enforcement officers approached and entered targeted residences with their weapons drawn and detained individuals who occupied the residences,” the release continues. “In a post on Jan. 20, 2023, Filion claimed that when he swats someone, he ‘usually gets the cops to drag the victim and their families out of the house, cuff them and search the house for dead bodies.’”
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In addition, FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate announced that Filion had tried to profit from these types of calls by offering “swatting-for-a-fee services.”
Following his arrest, Filion pleaded guilty on Wednesday to four counts of making interstate threats to injure the person of another.
He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for each count.
“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,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. “He caused profound fear and chaos and will now face the consequences of his actions.”
A sentencing date has not yet been set.
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