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# U.S. California Teen Sentenced to 4 Years in Prison for Nationwide Swatting Rampage
- URL: https://darkwebinformer.com/u-s-california-teen-sentenced-to-4-years-in-prison-for-nationwide-swatting-rampage/
- Published: 2025-02-11T20:32:51.000Z
- Updated: 2025-09-04T22:24:05.000Z
- Author: Dark Web Informer
- Tags: News

A **California teenager has been sentenced to four years in federal prison** after carrying out a nationwide swatting spree that terrorized schools, religious institutions, and individuals across the U.S.

### **375 Swatting Calls Over 18 Months**

Alan W. Filion, 18, of Lancaster, California, pleaded guilty to **making interstate threats** after orchestrating **over 375 swatting calls** between August 2022 and January 2024\. His threats included **bomb scares, mass shooting threats, and hoax emergency calls**, forcing law enforcement to respond to false crises.

Filion **targeted high schools, universities, religious institutions, government officials, and private citizens**, deliberately triggering **large-scale police deployments**. His calls often led to heavily armed officers storming homes, detaining innocent people, and diverting emergency resources away from real incidents.

### **Swatting for Profit and Entertainment**

Filion didn’t just swat for amusement—he turned it into a business. In **January 2023**, he bragged online about **monetizing his swatting services**, offering to place fake emergency calls for a fee. He even detailed his success in getting SWAT teams to enter homes, detain victims, and search for nonexistent crimes.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6b/16/6b16ac9c-cd67-432f-b0f3-bbec941084ff/content/images/2025/02/5467345623567235265.png)

Alan Filion

### **Escalating Threats and Arrest**

His threats became increasingly **violent and specific**. In **May 2023**, he called a religious institution in Florida, claiming to be armed with an **illegally modified AR-15, a Glock 17 pistol, pipe bombs, and Molotov cocktails**, and stated he was about to **“kill everyone”** he saw. He was arrested in January 2024 on state charges related to that threat and later pleaded guilty in federal court.

Other hoax calls linked to Filion include:

- **October 2022** – Called a high school in Washington, claiming he had planted bombs and planned a mass shooting.
- **May 2023** – Called a **Historically Black College** in Florida, falsely claiming bombs were hidden in student housing.
- **July 2023** – Called a police department in Texas, impersonating a federal law enforcement officer and falsely reporting a murder at the officer’s home.

### **Sentenced to 48 Months in Federal Prison**

Filion’s actions resulted in wasted law enforcement resources, traumatized victims, and dangerously escalated situations. He was sentenced to **48 months in federal prison**, marking a significant case in the growing crackdown on **swatting and cyber-enabled threats**.

Law enforcement agencies continue to warn that swatting is **not a harmless prank**—it’s a **federal crime** with real-world consequences

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Source: [U.S. Department of Justice](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/california-teenager-sentenced-48-months-prison-nationwide-swatting-spree)