Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Anthony V. Mangione, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Investigations, Miami Field Office, and Michelle Morris, Chief, City of Sebastian Police Department, announced the sentencing of Daniel Anthony Smith, 46, of Sebastian, on charges of distributing and receiving child pornography via the Internet, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section, 2252(a)(2).

Today, U.S. District Court Judge Jose E. Martinez sentenced Smith to 15 years imprisonment and a lifetime of supervised release on both counts to run concurrently. Smith’s laptop computer and external hard drive was also forfeited. Smith faced a mandatory minimum sentence of five years and up to twenty years in prison for the charges.

According to the stipulated factual basis filed in support of Smith’s October 14, 2010 guilty plea, ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents in Ft. Pierce and officers from the Sebastian Police Department were following up on a tip from Treasure Coast Crime Stoppers that Smith possessed child pornography on his laptop computer. Based on this information, ICE special agents and Sebastian Detectives approached and interviewed Smith outside his residence. Initially, Smith denied having any child pornography on his computer. Subsequently, Smith allowed ICE agents to examine the laptop computer in his living room.

The examination of the laptop computer in Smith’s living room revealed that Smith was running a Peer-to-Peer software program and was in the process of downloading three video files with names indicative of child pornography. In addition, several other video files with names indicative of child pornography were being uploaded via the peer to peer program to the internet. After Smith’s arrest, a forensic examination of the laptop computer revealed the presence of video clips depicting minor children engaged in sexually explicit conduct. A forensic examination of Smith’s external hard drive, recovered from Smith's laptop bag, revealed more than 46 additional videos of varying lengths depicting minor children engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Mr. Ferrer commended the investigative efforts of ICE's Homeland Security Investigations in Ft. Pierce and the Sebastian Police Department for their work on this case. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Carmen Lineberger.

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A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.