A Romanian extradited to the USA, sentenced to prison after terrorizing dozens of American officials with the “swatting” method
A Romanian citizen was sentenced Wednesday to four years in prison for orchestrating a massive hoax campaign against dozens of American officials and elected officials, calling emergency services to report non-existent crimes in order to trigger masked raids on their homes, reports AFP.
Thomasz Szabo, 27, extradited from Romania to the United States in November 2024, pleaded guilty in June 2025 to leading this “swatting” campaign and also making bomb threats.
The Justice Department said last summer that Thomasz Szabo admitted targeting more than 75 officials, four religious institutions and several journalists.
Originating in the community of online video game enthusiasts, “swatting” takes its name from the American police emergency response units, “SWAT teams”.
It consists of reporting a false emergency to law enforcement, giving the address of a specific place, so that they can intervene in force.
According to the indictment, from the end of 2020 to the beginning of 2024, Thomasz Szabo moderated online discussion groups in which the accomplices communicated.
The false alerts include a threat to massacre New York synagogues in December 2020, to detonate a bomb at the Capitol, the seat of the US Congress in Washington, in January 2021, and to “kill President-elect Donald Trump” after his election victory in November 2024.
But the calls mainly concerned false alerts regarding the imminent commission of a crime or suicide at the victim's home, or the taking of hostages, including children.
Among the victims are, according to the authorities, at least 25 members of Congress or people close to them, as well as former officials of the Trump administration, the police and the federal judiciary, along with journalists and religious institutions.
In addition to the emotional suffering endured by the victims, these threats caused, among other things, a car accident during the police intervention, the disruption of religious services or the closure of streets.
