California teenager pleads guilty in Florida to hundreds of burglary calls across the country – East Bay Times

TAMPA, Florida. A California teenager pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges related to the destruction of a Florida mosque along with other institutions and individuals, federal prosecutors said.

18-year-old Alan V. Fillion, of Lancaster, entered the plea to four counts creation of interstate threats to harm another person, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida. He faces up to five years in prison on each count. A sentencing date has not yet been set.

Swatting is the practice of making a prank call to the emergency services in order to provoke the dispatch of a large number of armed police officers to a particular address. Bomb threats in the US date back decades, but the attack has become particularly popular in recent years, with individuals and groups targeting celebrities and politicians.

“For more than a year, Alan Fillion 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 deep fear and chaos and will now face the consequences of his actions,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a press release.

FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate said Fillion intended to cause as much damage as possible and sought to profit from the activity by offering paid services.

“The shooting poses a serious risk to first responders and victims, wastes time and resources, and creates fear in communities. The FBI will continue to work with partners to aggressively investigate and prosecute anyone involved in this activity,” Abbate said.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said that between August 2022 and January 2024, Fillion made more than 375 calls involving threats and threats. These calls included those in which he claimed to have planted bombs at targeted locations or threatened to detonate bombs and/or carry out mass shootings at those locations. , prosecutors said.

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

Fillion also pleaded guilty to three other threatening calls, including an October 2022 call to a public high school in Western Washington County in which he threatened a mass shooting and claimed to have planted bombs throughout the school.

He also pleaded guilty to a May 2023 call to a historically black college and university in North County, Florida, in which he claimed to plant bombs in the walls and ceilings of campus buildings that would explode about an hour later.

Another incident involved a July 2023 call to the dispatch number of a local police department in the Western District of Texas in which he falsely identified himself as a senior federal law enforcement officer, giving the officer’s home address to the dispatcher, who claimed to have killed the mother of a federal officer and threatened to kill anyone – any policeman who will answer.

Originally published: November 14, 2024 at 4:37 AM PST