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Notorious ’swatter’ sentenced to federal prison, partly for Illinois crimes

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Illinois

* US Attorney’s Office from the Western District of the state of Washington..

A 21-year-old Bremerton, Washington, man was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to three years in prison for four federal felonies stemming from his extensive illegal harassing activity known as “swatting,” announced U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman. Ashton Connor Garcia pleaded in January 2024 to two counts of extortion, and two counts of threats and hoaxes regarding explosives. At the sentencing hearing U.S. District Judge Benjamin H. Settle said, “Swatting is cruel. It is uncivilized. It is the willful terrorizing of other human beings.” Judge Settle added that he saw great need to “send a message that engaging in swatting will get more than a slap on the hand.”

“This conduct is not only outrageous, it is dangerous for the victims, for first responders and for members of the public who may need emergency response but cannot get it because resources are tied up at a false report,” said U.S. Attorney Gorman. “I hope this prosecution and sentence is a wake-up call for those who think swatting is fun or entertaining. It is a federal crime with potentially fatal consequences.”

According to the plea agreement and records in the case, from early June 2022 through March 2023, Garcia used voice over internet technology and social media platforms to make false emergency calls to dispatch services while urging others watch his illegal activity via social media. In his plea agreement, Garcia admits he intended his calls to cause a large-scale deployment of special weapons and tactics (SWAT) teams, bomb squads, and other police units to the targeted locations. He made these calls with malicious intent to harass, intimidate, and retaliate against certain individuals and organizations, and to obtain items of value through extortion.

The plea agreement details 20 different false emergency reports targeting victims in California, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Washington, and Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Garcia gathered personal information about his victims, and then threatened some of his victims with harm, including placing swatting calls to send an armed police presence to their home. Garcia demanded money, virtual currency, credit card information, or sexually explicit photos from some of the people he threatened. […]

Garcia treated the swatting calls like entertainment. He broadcasted his swatting calls via the internet platform Discord. Garcia told other Discord users that he considered himself a “cyber terrorist.”

* The two 2022 Illinois crimes…

On July 25, he called Charleston, Illinois, to falsely claim that he planted a bomb at a park near a local university. […]

[O]n July 28, Garcia called Peoria, Illinois, to falsely report that his stepfather was holding a gun to his mother’s head and raping her.

Neither Isabel nor I could find any news coverage about those two swatting crimes.

* KOMO reports on how he was busted…

In one case in Edmonton, Alberta, Garcia reported a fake emergency at the home of a mother and an 8-year-old boy who were asleep. The family was awoken by dozens of officers with rifles arriving at their home in the middle of the night.

“Garcia often made several hoax calls per week and sometimes multiple calls in a single day. He treated swatting like a form of entertainment in which he was the star performer. He set up internet chatrooms devoted to swatting, and he invited people to come watch his swatting calls as if it were a premier sporting event,” Manca wrote.

But it was the same online chatrooms that ultimately led police to Garcia. In July 2022, the FBI national tip line at ic3.gov received an anonymous tip reporting that Garcia was using his Discord.com channel to broadcast the swatting calls. Other anonymous tips came into the FBI saying Garcia was part of a Discord group dedicated to swatting, and he described himself as a ‘professional swatter,’ according to an FBI search warrant obtained by KOMO News.

It is kind of amazing to me that the FBI still has no way to trace these calls. But good on them for catching him.

* More from the plea agreement…

Garcia targeted victims for a variety of different reasons. He targeted people he met in online chatrooms. He targeted people his friends asked him to swat. He targeted people at random after finding their publicly available information online. He may have targeted people based on their race, gender identity, and sexual orientation. […]

Garcia’s online conversations also revealed his awareness of the harm he caused and his enthusiasm for preying on other people. He tried to form a group that would focus on doxxing, swatting, and extortion. In his own words, the group’s mission was “to terrorize people.” He repeatedly commented that “Extortion is fun” and talked about making other people’s lives “miserable.” He bragged that he had become a “cyber terrorist.”

Click here for the entire plea agreement. And click here for sentencing document, Memorandum regarding detention.

Thoughts?

[Isabel significantly contributed to this post.]

posted by Isabel Miller
Thursday, Jun 6, 24 @ 11:49 am

Comments

Man, what some people will resort to in order to feel validated and important. Glad he’s getting prison time which I hope includes mental health treatment.

Comment by Cubs in '16 Thursday, Jun 6, 24 @ 11:54 am
The activity seems out of touch with the sentence and the plea agreement. I wonder if this is something we need to look at within our own statutes. This sentence genuinely seems pretty light for a person that terrorized others for entertainment and cost the public significant resources in so doing while damaging their reputation within their own communities. Every one of these calls could have resulted in dead officers or dead citizens.

Comment by Candy Dogood Thursday, Jun 6, 24 @ 12:00 pm
=== it is kind of amazing to me that the FBI still has no way to trace these calls ===

This guy had to try really hard to get caught and it still took almost a year. Our telephone system is the Wild West, it’s basically a free avenue to commit crimes. We need a full revamp to allow number verification and traceability. The only real opposition is from criminals and phone companies who profit off of criminals’ call volume.

Comment by vern Thursday, Jun 6, 24 @ 12:08 pm
” We need a full revamp to allow number verification and traceability. The only real opposition is from criminals and phone companies who profit off of criminals’ call volume”

This guy used VOIP numbers - they are available for free - look at Google Voice, Textnow, openphone, and Whatsap they are not affiliated with traditional phone companies

Comment by Donnie Elgin Thursday, Jun 6, 24 @ 12:41 pm
Yikes. Glad he was caught. That Peoria call was no prank Glas it didn’t end tragically.

Comment by Mason born Thursday, Jun 6, 24 @ 12:57 pm
Thoughts?
3 years isn’t enough……

Comment by Are Ya Kidding Me? Thursday, Jun 6, 24 @ 1:33 pm
@Donnie Elgin- Sounds like we need requirements for VOIP providers to do some amount of KYC on their clients or detailed record keeping then, if they want to offer that service.

Comment by Homebody Thursday, Jun 6, 24 @ 1:33 pm
=== they are not affiliated with traditional phone companies ===

Not sure what the boundaries of “affiliated” are, but VOIP companies pay for access to the public switched telephone network. Something like 25% of all phone call traffic is on the spam-to-scam continuum, which means the phone companies make a ton of money off this stuff. They’re the main obstacle to reform.

Comment by vern Thursday, Jun 6, 24 @ 2:02 pm
Three years is not nearly enough in my opinion.

Comment by allknowingmasterofraccoondom Thursday, Jun 6, 24 @ 2:13 pm
Thoughts?
3 years isn’t enough……

This.

Comment by P. Thursday, Jun 6, 24 @ 2:20 pm
Agreed… how can the FBI and/or CIA not trace? Both agencies spy on all americans. I will digress…. Nonetheless, shameful act and glad he will be brought to justice. 3 years seems light too

Comment by Anthony Thursday, Jun 6, 24 @ 2:59 pm
This is a really weird world that encompasses swatting. Livestreamers commonly called “IRL stremers” walk around with video for hours every day, with speakers that broadcast whatever foul messages their watchers will pay to broadcast via text-to-speech. It’s like TV, except you can provoke someone to punch David Schwimmer in the face. Swatting eventually happens (some even think the streamers sometimes swat themselves to increase their audience.) Some of their victims, who may or may not also be perpetrators, are known to basically lay it out to their local sheriff and police depts that swatting is a possibility and here’s my number, please call it before deploying.

I know every generation thinks the next one’s media goes too far, and Darwin is going to be the ultimate winner here. But you wonder how guys like this come about, and there’s a whole fringe subculture that encourages it.

Comment by granville Thursday, Jun 6, 24 @ 3:44 pm
Longer sentence is warranted. So many crimes now seem to lack serious consequences. I feel bad for so many of his victims.

Comment by Stormsw7706 Thursday, Jun 6, 24 @ 5:15 pm
I completely agree with those saying 3 years is inadequate. Swatting someone you are actually fighting with is bad enough, but he seems to have done it just for the thrill and amusement of wreaking havoc more broadly, and engaged in it repeatedly. And although the plea agreement mentions fines, the sentencing document apparently waives fines because he can’t pay them?
His location of detention was also determined so he could be close to family?

All around a disappointing result. But, yes, at least they did apprehend him.

Comment by Leslie K Thursday, Jun 6, 24 @ 6:33 pm