Craig James Myran, Advertising and Distributing Images of Child Sexual Abuse, Minnesota 2024

A Minnesota man has been sentenced to a lengthy prison term for his role in advertising and distributing images of child sexual abuse over the dark web.

Craig James Myran, 47, of Bemidji, was sentenced yesterday to 21 years and 10 months in prison for possession of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) found in his apartment and for using the dark web to advertise and distribute CSAM images and videos.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Myran was an active participant on a website only accessible through the dark web that was dedicated to discussing and trafficking CSAM. For years, he used an account with a unique username to make over a thousand posts in which he shared images of CSAM.

Myran’s sexual exploitation of minors was not limited to his activity on just one particular dark-web site. He was simultaneously an active participant on multiple other dark-web sites dedicated to trafficking in CSAM, and he previously made posts on the dark web about producing his own CSAM by screen-recording minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct during online webcam interactions.

On Dec. 8, 2022, FBI special agents executed a search warrant on Myran’s apartment in Bemidji, where they found a cell phone and numerous hard drives that contained evidence that he used the dark web to advertise, publish, and solicit CSAM. Agents also found thousands of other CSAM images.

Myran was convicted on Nov. 20, 2024, on two counts of advertising child pornography, one count of distributing child pornography, and one count of possessing child pornography.

The case was investigated by the FBI Minneapolis Field Office and prosecuted by Trial Attorney William G. Clayman of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney David B. Green for the District of Minnesota.

The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.