Then, between Christmas Eve and New Year, came a new flood of swattings. They attacked almost a hundred politicians and law enforcement officials in a reckless and coordinated campaign: the secretary of US Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Jen Easterly, the Republican representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, and the Republican Senator Rick Scott of Florida. One of the hoax calls, court documents would later state, led to a car accident that resulted in serious injuries. But this time, the voice on the phone wasn’t Torswats. However, according to US prosecutors, he organized the operation, providing the target’s names, addresses and phone numbers to a 21-year-old and a 26-year-old from Serbia and Romania who allegedly organized and carried out the swatting. plan with Torswats food line for them. It’s a familiar script. “I shot my wife in the head with an AR-15,” said a man who identified himself as “James” in one of those calls, directed at the home of Georgia state senator John Albers. He told the operator that he caught his wife sleeping with another man and, after killing her, he took her hostage. “I will release him for $10,000 in cash,” he added, threatening to detonate a pipe bomb and blow up the house if his demands were not met. Eventually, Phillips calls Dennis and tells him that the FBI has a plan to arrest Torswats. . And he needs Dennis’ help. According to the plan, the bureau will ask the father of the teenage suspect to come to the local police station to retrieve the seized computer. While his father was there, Phillips explained, Dennis had to adopt the persona of his ex-husband and start another Telegram conversation with Torswats about evicting his ex-husband. Then he had to stop until he could keep Torswats on his computer, logging into his accounts—so the police could raid and arrest him. Dennis, despite being sick with Covid, agrees. However, to his and the FBI’s surprise, Torswats accompanied his father to the police station to retrieve his device. The police calmly arrested him on the spot. As his nemesis was finally arrested, Dennis was too ill to celebrate. The FBI and the Justice Department both declined WIRED’s request for comment, which included questions about why the FBI had taken so many months to learn Torswats’ name—even after searching for him. house-to catch him. After nearly two years of investigation, Dennis finally learned the young man’s name: Alan Filion. He sees Filion’s photo for the first time and mentally replaces the image of Dshocker’s face with the little boy he allegedly hunted. Like Dshocker, Filion is big. He has long and slender brown hair. In the photo, she wears a pure and innocent expression. At the time of his arrest, Filion was 17 years old. When Dennis’ childhood began, Filion was only 15. Photo order Alan Filion Courtesy of the Seminole County Sheriff’s OfficeFilion fits the profile of many delinquents online. He, like Dennis, seems to have come of age online, finding community in specialized forums rather than the physical world. The middle school year was defined by the isolation of the pandemic lock. According to Lancaster’s Antelope Valley community college, Filion will begin pursuing a math degree in the fall of 2022 after graduating from high school early. But the professor at Antelope Valley could barely remember him. A person who knew him said he was quiet and “forgetful”, with few friends. People who claim to be Filion’s friends say they belong to a group that targets racial violence and that they raise money to “buy weapons and do mass. shootings.” An anonymous tip, submitted to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center and obtained by WIRED, alleged that the person behind the Torswats account was involved with a neo-Nazi cult known as the Order of Nine Angles day” by “destroying the system’s finances and working hours.”
