Suspects Charged With Swatting Incidents that Targeted Cabinet Members, Congress
Two suspects from Eastern Europe are charged with targeting dozens of U.S. government officials in a long running “swatting” scheme.
Charged in the case is 26-year-old Thomasz Szabo of Romania and 21-year-old Nemanja Radovanovic of Serbia.
More than 100 victims were impacted including Cabinet-level officials and members of Congress.
Swatting is when a criminal calls police and first responders claiming there’s a bomb, a murder, a suicide, or some other emergency going on. The crime aims to get emergency services dispatched to a place of residence or business, to intimidate victims.
The charges come as the number of swatting cases against public officials has risen dramatically in recent years.
Scheme Ran for Years
Prosecutors say the swatting attacks in question occurred from December 2020 through January 2024. There were 61 official victims and 40 private victims, who were not named in the indictment. Also targeted were businesses, religious institutions, and a university.
Szabo was the apparent ringleader and communicated with Radovanovic and others using code names in chatrooms.
“Swatting is not a victimless prank—it endangers real people, wastes precious police resources, and inflicts significant emotional trauma,” said U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves of the District of Columbia.
The crimes included reporting a false homicide and kidnapping at the home of the head of a federal law enforcement agency and reporting a false homicide and imminent suicide at the home of a member of Congress.
The indictment also accuses Szabo of calling a crisis intervention hotline three days before President Biden’s inauguration in January 2021, threatening to detonate explosives at the U.S. Capitol.
“The perpetrators of these crimes left a trail of victims across the United States, abusing critical law enforcement resources to terrorize elected officials, public figures, and private citizens. We will never waver in our commitment to bring individuals like this to justice,” said U.S. Secret Service Washington Field Office Special Agent in Charge Matt McCool.
The suspects are each facing one count of conspiracy, 29 counts of threats and false information regarding explosives, and four counts of transmitting threats in interstate and foreign commerce.
The U.S. Secret Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and U.S. Capitol Police are continuing the investigation.
The suspects are still overseas and are believed to be in different countries.
One victim, Georgia State Senator John Albers (R), told the Associated Press he hopes the suspects are extradited soon.
“This will be a very strong signal to other people, whether they are at home or abroad, that we will find you and we will hunt you down,” Albers said.