For greater than a 12 months, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation has been looking the particular person whom specialists say is without doubt one of the most prolific swatters in American historical past. Law enforcement now believes they’ve lastly arrested the particular person accountable.

A 17-year-old from California is allegedly the swatter often known as Torswats, in accordance with sources aware of the investigation. The teenager is at the moment in custody and awaiting extradition from California to Seminole County, Florida. The Florida State Attorney’s Office tells WIRED that he faces 4 felony counts.

Seminole County, positioned in central Florida, had two high-profile swatting incidents inside the final 12 months, together with one focusing on a mosque and one other focusing on a courthouse. Todd Brown, a spokesperson for Florida’s Office of the State Attorney within the 18th Circuit, confirmed the costs towards the teenager and his extradition. Brown says he can be prosecuted as an grownup underneath Florida regulation. WIRED is withholding the 17-year-old’s identify as a result of he’s a minor.

The teenager’s arrest comes within the midst of a nationwide swatting surge. Swatting assaults usually contain somebody calling in pretend assaults to 911 in an try to solicit an awesome police response. Since Christmas, swatters have targeted the properties of distinguished politicians from each events, judges dealing with instances involving former US president Donald Trump, and the director of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

Prior to those high-profile swats, a relentless campaign from totally different, potentially foreign, swatting teams focused a whole bunch of faculties and universities across the US over the previous 12 months and a half. Last May, an officer in Danvers, Massachusetts, accidentally fired his service weapon whereas responding to a faculty swat. In February, an officer in Saginaw Township, Michigan, rammed his vehicle via the varsity’s locked door to get contained in the constructing following a swatting name.

According to the Florida State Attorney’s Office, the costs towards the California teenager embrace making false stories regarding the planting of a bomb or the usage of firearms, inflicting a regulation enforcement response. All prices are described as associated to acts of terrorism and exhibiting prejudice based mostly on race, coloration, ancestry, ethnicity, or faith.

In non-public Telegram chats witnessed by WIRED over the previous 12 months, an individual working the Torswats deal with claimed accountability for a whole bunch of false stories of bomb threats and lively shootings known as into colleges, politicians’ properties, courthouses, and spiritual establishments across the US.

Brad “Cafrozed” Dennis, a non-public investigator who works for high-profile Twitch streamers who’ve been swatted, has been looking Torswats for almost two years and actively serving to the FBI’s investigation. “It’s a beautiful day,” Dennis says. “I am very relieved Tor will no longer be able to conduct his reign of terror on our schools and public officials just doing their jobs.”

According to information shared with WIRED, Dennis engaged somebody utilizing the Torswats deal with on a peer-to-peer chatting service known as Tox underneath the guise of ordering a swat in December 2022. By recording his community site visitors, the investigator surreptitiously captured the swatter’s IP handle together with a username that on the time was unknown to regulation enforcement. According to Dennis, in January 2023, he handed the proof to the FBI particular brokers in command of Torswats’ case. In emails shared with WIRED, the FBI advised Dennis this data was utilized in subpoenas despatched to YouTube and Discord. Court information associated to the case towards the California teen haven’t but been made public.