Man charged in 20-plus calls of false threats in US, Canada pleads guilty

TACOMA, Wash. — A Washington state man who made more than 20 “swatting” calls across the country and in Canada, prompting emergency response to his hoax bombings, shootings and other threatening reports, pleaded guilty Thursday to four crimes.

Ashton Garcia, 21, pleaded guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to two counts of extortion and two counts of threats and deception involving explosives, U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman said in a news release. He was initially charged with ten crimes.

Federal prosecutors say Garcia used voice-over-internet technology to conceal his identity during the calls in 2022 and 2023. He also urged others to listen as he broadcast them on the social media platform Discord.

In several cases, Garcia collected personal information about his victims and threatened to send emergency responders to their homes unless they handed over money, credit card information or sexually explicit images.

Law enforcement officers responded and entered some homes with weapons drawn and arrested people inside, prosecutors said.

He also called in hoax bomb threats on the Fox News station in Cleveland, Ohio, and on a flight from Honolulu to Los Angeles. In another case, he threatened to bomb a Los Angeles airport unless he received $200,000 in Bitcoin.

Such hoaxes can be deadly. In 2017, a police officer in Wichita, Kansas, shot and killed a man while responding to a false emergency call.

The indictment does not indicate how investigators identified Garcia as a suspect. Prosecutors are recommending that Garcia, of Bremerton, serve four years in prison as part of his plea deal. His sentencing is scheduled for April.

Garcia placed the calls to agencies in Washington, California, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Edmonton, in Alberta, Canada, prosecutors said.

Garcia remains in custody at the federal detention center in SeaTac, Washington.