An 18-year-old California man was sentenced Tuesday to four years in federal prison for making hundreds of threats, including bomb scares and swatting incidents, that targeted religious institutions, schools, government officials, and individuals nationwide, the Department of Justice announced in a news release.

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Alan W. Filion, of Lancaster, admitted to making more than 375 hoax calls between August 2022 and January 2024, falsely reporting bomb placements, imminent mass shootings, and other violent acts, according to prosecutors.

His calls led to large-scale emergency responses, with armed law enforcement officers sometimes detaining residents at gunpoint, officials said.

Filion boasted online about his swatting activities, once claiming, 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.”

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Prosecutors said he also ran a swatting-for-hire scheme, advertising his services on social media.

He pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including a May 2023 threat against a religious institution in Sanford, Florida, where he falsely claimed to have firearms, explosives, and Molotov cocktails and threatened to kill everyone in sight.

Other calls included threats to a Washington state high school, a historically Black college in Florida, and a Texas law enforcement officer, the DOJ said.

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Filion was arrested in January and later pleaded guilty in federal court.

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