A Saskatoon teen is facing charges and extradition to the United States in connection to swatting incidents. Swatting is a form of harassment where suspects make false claims resulting in often heavily armed police forces, like a SWAT team, descending on locations where in fact, nothing has transpired.
Police allege a teen, using a VoIP number, initiated a call to a large U.S. metropolitan police department which resulted in law enforcement engaging in an armed emergency response. Police also allege that this person made many other calls to law enforcement agencies, schools, universities, airports, business and personal homes saying violence with weapons had occurred and people were critically injured. All the incidents were false and cost tens of thousands of dollars in emergency response in both Canada and the United States.
A suspect was identified through an investigation involving the Edmonton Police Service Cybercrime Unit, Saskatoon Police Service, the Regional Enforcement Allied Computer Team (REACT), the United States Secret Service and the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force. The investigation got underway in September 2020 and in November last year, Edmonton Police received judicial approval to execute a search warrant on a Saskatoon home. Evidence was seized at that time.
On Wednesday, a 15 year old male was arrested by the Louisiana Sherrif’s Office. He is facing Second Degree False Public Alarm Impending Bomb under the New Jersey Code of Criminal Justice. The youth is also facing extradition to other jurisdictions in the United States to face charges and prosecution for the offences he committed while residing in Saskatoon. The investigation is ongoing and more charges are pending.
(CJWW)