A former leader of the neo-Nazi Atomwaffen Division in Texas will spend three and a half months in prison for participating in so-called swatting events targeting journalists and minorities throughout the US, the Justice Department said on Tuesday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th May, 2021) A former leader of the neo-Nazi Atomwaffen Division in Texas will spend three and a half months in prison for participating in so-called swatting events targeting journalists and minorities throughout the US, the Justice Department said on Tuesday.
Swatting is a harassment tactic that involves deceiving emergency dispatchers into believing that a person or persons are in imminent danger of death or bodily harm and causing the dispatchers to send police and emergency services to an unwitting third party's address.
"According to court documents, John Cameron Denton, 27, of Montgomery, Texas, participated in a conspiracy that conducted swatting attacks on at least 134 different locations across the United States between October 2018 and February 2019," the department said in a press release.
Denton and other conspirators chose targets because they were motivated by racial animus, the release said.
The neo-Nazi and co-conspirators targeted multiple locations in the state of Virginia, including a sitting US Cabinet official, Old Dominion University, and the predominantly African-American Alfred Street Baptist Church. In each instance, conspirators selected the targets and called emergency dispatchers with false claims of pipe bombs, hostage takings, or other violent activity occurring at the targeted locations, the release said.
Other targets included the New York City office of ProPublica, a non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism, an investigative journalist who produced materials for ProPublica and an Islamic center in the state of Texas, the release added.
Denton was given a 41-month sentence by US District Judge Liam O'Grady in the state of Virginia.
