Washington Man pleads guilty to making numerous 'swatting' calls
A man in Washington state has pleaded guilty to federal charges stemming from several hoax calls he made to law enforcement agencies in which he falsely reported bombs, shootings and other threats that sometimes led to police officers entering victims' homes with their guns drawn weapons, prosecutors said .
The man, Ashton Connor Garcia, 21, pleaded guilty to two counts of extortion and two counts of threats and hoaxes involving explosives, the U.S. Attorney's office for the Western District of Washington said Thursday.
According to court records, Mr. Garcia made 20 “swatting” calls to police in several states and Canada between June 2022 and March 2023.
Mr. Garcia, who described himself as a “cyber terrorist,” often broadcast these calls on the social platform Discord to “encourage others to watch and participate,” the newspaper said. plea agreement.
Mr. Garcia treated swat calls, so named for the deployment of police SWAT teams in response to hoaxes, “as entertainment,” and indictment said in March 2023.
In Mr. Garcia's calls to law enforcement, he often relied on similar scripts, characterizing himself as a victim of or witness to domestic violence involving guns and rape.
He also targeted several female victims by threatening to have law enforcement officers sent to their homes if they did not send nude photos or their parents' credit card information, federal prosecutors said.
Mr. Garcia remained in federal custody in Seattle on Saturday and was scheduled to be sentenced on April 15.
According to the Ministry of Justice, threats and deception with explosives carry a prison sentence of up to ten years, and extortion carries a prison sentence of up to two years. The United States Attorney's Office said prosecutors agreed to recommend no more than four years in prison.
Heather Carroll, a federal public defender representing Mr. Garcia, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday.
The plea deal comes weeks after a wave of other hoax calls and threats made to law enforcement agencies across the United States that targeted government officials.
This month it includes State Capitol buildings Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi And Montana were evacuated or confined after authorities said they received bomb threats that they described as false and unspecific.
The calls were made to government officials responsible for ballot access and voting in connection with debunked conspiracy theories about fraud in the 2020 general election. The judge who presided over Donald Trump's civil fraud trial in New York was also summoned to his home beaten. Prominent Republicans have also been targeted.
The phenomenon of swatting originated in the competitive world of online gaming.
The attacks are made possible by forums on the Internet and on the camouflaged sites of the dark web. These forums name thousands of people, from high-ranking tech executives to their extended families, who could be targeted, providing cell phone numbers, home addresses and other information.
Some even discuss techniques, like Mr. Garcia's, to make calls over the Internet and spoof a phone number so that law enforcement officials think a 911 call is coming from a target's home.
In addition to using it as a tool for extortion or political retaliation, authorities have warned that swatting calls can be deadly. In 2017, a police officer in Wichita, Kansas, fatally shot a man while responding to a false emergency call.
In that case, Tyler Barriss of Los Angeles pleaded guilty to the fake call and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.