Valrico Man Charged With Distributing Child Pornography

Valrico resident Joshua Craig Abel, 28, was arrested and charged with distributing child pornography Feb. 23 stemming from an incident that occurred Nov. 26.

According to an FBI affidavit, on Nov. 26 FBI Special Agent Michael Daniels, based in Kansas City, signed into a publicly available private peer-to-peer file sharing network and observed an individual using the user name "Joblow00." When Daniels browsed the user's shared directories, he discovered the user was sharing files depicting images of child pornography. Daniels selected 112 image files and downloaded them directly from the user. During the downloads, Daniels used the program CommView to identify the IP address used by Joblow00.

The FBI traced the user name to Abel and executed a federal search warrant at his home at 1009 Classic Drive, Valrico, Feb. 23. During a voluntary interview at his home, Abel reportedly confessed to using the online persona "Joblow00" and admitted to distributing child pornography over the Internet.

In a review of the downloaded material, the FBI Innocent Images Task Force, charged with investigating the sexual exploitation of children, including offenses involving the dissemination of child pornography on the Internet, concluded that 84 of the images depicted child pornography. The remaining files were of child erotica or pornography in which task force members couldn't determine the age of the subject. The files downloaded depicted minors engaged in sexually explicit activities.

An on-scene preview of Abel's computer and attached hard drives identified numerous images of post-pubescent boys stored in a download folder, created by using the peer-to-peer file sharing network. 

The FBI Innocent Images Task Force is requesting anyone with information about
this matter, including information regarding potential victims, contact the
FBI Tampa Office at (813) 253-1000.