California teenager pleads guilty to making hundreds of 'offensive' calls in Florida

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A California teenager pleaded guilty Wednesday to a case involving the crushing of a Florida mosque among other institutions and individuals, federal prosecutors said.

Alan W. Filion, 18, of Lancaster, California, entered a plea to four counts of making an interstate threat to injure the person of another, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida said in a press release. In both cases, he faces up to five years in prison. A sentencing date has not yet been set.

Swatting is the practice of making prank calls to emergency services to ensure that large numbers of armed police officers are dispatched to a particular address. Bomb threats in the United States date back decades, but the attack has become particularly popular in recent years as people and groups target celebrities and politicians.

“For over a year, Alan Filion targeted religious institutions, schools, government officials, and other innocent victims with hundreds of false threats about impending mass shootings, bombings, and other violent crimes. “He has caused deep fear and chaos and now he will face the consequences of his actions.” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a news release.

FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate said Filion intended to cause as much damage as possible and tried to profit from the activity by offering tattoo services for a fee.

“Swatting poses serious danger to first responders and victims, wastes significant time and resources, and creates fear in communities. The FBI will continue to work with its partners to aggressively investigate and hold accountable anyone who engages in these activities.” Abbate said.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Filion made more than 375 calls for attacks and threats from August 2022 to January 2024. Those calls included calls in which he claimed to have planted bombs at targeted locations or threatened to detonate bombs and/or engage in mass shootings at those locations, prosecutors said.

It targeted religious institutions, high schools, colleges and universities, government officials, and people in the United States. Filion was 16 when he made most of the calls.

Filion also pleaded guilty to making three other threatening calls in October 2022, including one in which he threatened a mass shooting at a public high school in Washington’s Western District and claimed he had planted a bomb at the school.

He also pleaded guilty to a May 2023 call to a historically black college and university in the Northern District of Florida; where he claimed to have placed bombs on the walls and ceilings of campus residences that would explode in about an hour. Another incident was a call to a local police department dispatch number in the Western District of Texas in July 2023; where he falsely identified himself as a high-ranking federal law enforcement officer and gave the officer’s residential address to the dispatcher, and claimed to have killed the officer. He threatened to kill the federal officer’s mother and all responding police officers.