Bemidji man found guilty of distributing child pornography on the dark web

DULUTH — A Bemidji man has been found guilty of advertising, distributing and possessing material depicting child sexual abuse using a dark web site.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Craig James Myran, 47, was an active participant in a dark web website that was dedicated to discussing and trafficking 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 abusive material to other users.

FBI agents executed a search warrant at Myran’s Bemidji apartment in December 2022, where they found several hard drives and a cell phone, according to court documents.

A forensic examination of these devices uncovered evidence linking Myran to his unique account on the dark web, including files of the child sexual abuse material he shared and solicited on the site, as well as a message directed to his unique pseudonym.

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

A sentencing hearing will be scheduled 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 the U.S. Attorneys’ offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood pools federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute Internet child abusers, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, visit

justice.gov/psc.

This case is the result of an investigation by the FBI.