Jury convicts Minnesota man for advertising, possession, distribution of child porn

A federal jury convicted a Minnesota man this week on charges involving the advertising, distribution and possession of material depicting the sexual abuse of children.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Craig James Myran, 47, of Bemidji, was an active participant on a website on the dark web that was dedicated to discussing and trafficking in child sexual abuse material.

For years, Myran used an account with a unique username to make over a thousand posts on this site, including at least one post in which he requested specific files of child sexual abuse material from other users, and another post in which he distributed files of child sexual abuse material to other users.

FBI special agents executed a search warrant on Myran’s apartment in Bemidji on Dec. 8, 2022, where they found numerous hard drives and a cell phone. A forensic examination of these devices uncovered evidence tying Myran to his unique account on the dark web site — including files of the child sexual abuse material that he shared and requested on the website, as well as a message directed to his unique alias — and thousands of other images of child sexual abuse material.

A federal jury found Myran guilty after a three-day trial on two counts of advertising child pornography, one count of distributing child pornography, and one count of possessing child pornography.

Myran faces a minimum penalty of 15 years in prison and a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison on each count of advertising child pornography, a minimum penalty of five years in prison and a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on the count of distributing child pornography, and a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on the count of possessing child pornography