College Football Norman Oklahoma The Bad Guys Run Amongst Us

NORMAN, OKLA (KOKH) — A Norman man is facing 45 years in federal prison after communicating with an undercover officer about plans for terror attacks.

According to court documents, Landon Kyle Swinford contacted an undercover law enforcement officer (UCE) on May 18, 2023, on a social media platform after he posted ISIS propaganda.

He told the UCE that he had been non-Muslim for eighteen years and resided in Oklahoma.

Swinford shared a desire to travel overseas to fight with ISIS, suggesting that the UCE and he travel together.

Throughout the investigation, the FBI located multiple social media accounts that Swinford used to promote violence.

While still in contact with the UCE, Swinford communicated that the University of Oklahoma football stadium could be a potential target for an attack. He made these comments on Sept. 30, 2023.

Swinford continued to communicate with the UCE and share violent posts on social media, including a call to "Dress up as your favorite mujahideen and Bomb a synagogue.”

During October 2023, Swinford discussed traveling out of state or overseas for potential attacks, rather than focusing on Oklahoma.

"Based on the UCE’s interaction with Mr. Swinford, the obstacles of traveling overseas, and his lack of money, it appeared there was not an imminent threat of violence from him in the Oklahoma area and that travel plans were something Mr. Swinford planned to work on over an extended period of time," the court document read.

Swinford expressed to the UCE that he intended to travel to New Orleans to conduct executions in a "voodoo temple." The UCE told Swinford that a cargo ship in New Orleans would transport them overseas to Egypt, and from there, "the brothers" would take them to Sanaa, Yemen. He then completed a money transfer to the UCE as a deposit for the travel.

On Oct. 21, 2023, Swinford texted the UCE that his mother had come into his bedroom and he believed she had found his thobe and kufi. The following day, all conversations, including text, telephonic, and social media, stopped between Mr. Swinford and the UCE.

Swinford's mother posted on social media that Swinford has been accepted into the Moore Norman Technology Center for the aviation mechanic school and would be attending in February 2024. In March of 2024, the FBI conducted an interview with Swinford.

Swinford told the FBI that his parents had confronted him about the thobe and kufi. His parents asked for his cell phone, which he handed over willingly. He was then given a new phone with a new number.

During the interview, Swinford admitted to making threatening and hateful social media posts as well as meeting with an individual he believed to be affiliated with ISIS and scouting the OU football stadium.

On March 19, 2024, the FBI provided the known IP address of Swinford to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) to query against their holdings with the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). OSBI then confirmed that Swinford's IP address was used to access child pornography.

Swinford was charged with transporting child pornography, possession of child pornography, and transmitting a threat in interstate commerce.