Bemidji Man convicted of distributing child sex abuse material

DULUTH, Minn. — A federal jury convicted Craig James Myran of Bemidji, Minnesota, for advertising, distributing, and possessing child pornography. Myran was an active participant on the dark web discussing, and trafficking in child sex abuse material.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Myran also made over a thousand posts on a website. One post included, where he requested specific files of child sex abuse material from other users. Another post, he distributed files of child pornography to other users.

FBI law enforcement agents executed a warrant to search Myran’s apartment in Bemidji on Dec. 8, 2022. They found numerous hard drives and a cell phone. A forensic examination of these devices uncovered evidence tying Myran to his unique account on a dark web site.

The examination also included files of child pornography, which he shared and requested on the website. A federal jury found Myran guilty yesterday, after a three-day trial. This included two counts of advertising child pornography, one count of distributing child pornography, in addition with one count of possessing child pornography.

There will be a sentencing hearing at a later date. This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.

Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. Here’s more information about Project Safe Childhood. For other crime related stories, more can be read here.

This case is the result of an FBI investigation. DOJ Trial Attorney William G. Clayman of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), and Assistant U.S. Attorney David Green for the District of Minnesota prosecuted the case.