FALLS CHURCH, Va. -- Prosecutors say a former neo-Nazi leader in Texas has been arrested and charged with a series phony bomb threats made in Virginia.
Twenty-six-year-old John C. Denton of Montgomery, Texas, was arrested Wednesday and charged related to his alleged role in a conspiracy that conducted multiple swatting events.
Swatting is the act of making a false police report — usually of an urgent or violent crime — causing the dispatchers to send police and emergency services to an unwitting third party’s address.
Prosecutors in Alexandria say the targets of the bogus bomb threats included a predominantly African American church in Alexandria (Nov. 3, 2018), an unidentified Cabinet official living in northern Virginia (Jan. 27, 2019), and Old Dominion University in Norfolk (Nov. 29, 2018).
Denton is charged with conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, interstate threats to injure. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
He faces an initial appearance Wednesday afternoon in federal court in Houston.
Denton was a leader of a group called Atomwaffen Division, which has been linked to multiple killings. Investigators say the group is seeking to incite a race war.
