An 18-year-old Lancaster resident was sentenced to four years in federal prison for making hundreds of swatting and threat calls across the nation, often for profit, the U.S. Justice Department announced on Tuesday, Feb. 11.
Alan W. Filion made nearly 400 swatting and threat calls between August 2022 and January 2024, according to a statement released by the DOJ. Filion claimed to have planted bombs and threatened mass shootings at various locations, including religious institutions, high schools, colleges, government officials and other individuals across the country.
In addition to these false claims, Filion also provided agencies with false names in order to deploy law enforcement to people’s homes, known as swatting. He claimed in a social media post that he “usually get[s] the cops to drag the victim and their families out of the house cuff them and search the house for dead bodies.”
Filion conducted these swattings for both profit and entertainment. In an online post on Jan. 19, 2023, Filion claimed that he performed his first swatting two to three years prior, but had decided to turn his scheme into a business six to nine months before the post was made. Filion would advertise his services on a “swatting-for-a-fee structure” on social media.
On Jan. 18, 2024, Filion was arrested in California for a May 2023 threat he made against a religious institution in Sanford, Florida. He claimed to have an illegally modified AR-15, a Glock 17 pistol, pipe bombs, and Molotov cocktails, and was planning to “commit a mass shooting” and “kill everyone” he saw. He pleaded guilty in federal court.
Filion also pleaded guilty to three other threats. In October 2022, he threatened to commit a mass shooting and claimed to have placed bombs throughout a public high school in Washington. In May 2023, he called a Historically Black College or University in Florida and claimed to have planted bombs that would detonate in approximately an hour.
In July 2023, he called a local police department in Texas and identified himself as a senior federal law enforcement officer. While impersonating this officer, he provided the department with the officer’s home address, claimed to have killed the federal officer’s mother, and threatened to kill any responding police officers.
Filion was put on trial by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Florida and sentenced to 48 months in federal prison.
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