A Howell man is facing federal charges for possessing and distributing child pornography, and he was allegedly trying to hide and destroy evidence while authorities were searching his home.
Kenneth James Smith Jr. faces federal charges of distribution and receipt of child pornography and possession of child pornography.
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A criminal complaint was unsealed on May 5, detailing the events leading to Smith’s arrest.
The investigation began on Oct. 22, 2025, when FBI agents signed into a BitTorrent Peer-to-Peer file-sharing program online.
Peer-to-Peer file sharing allows people to share electronic files, including images and videos. The criminal complaint stated that the users on the program are typically anonymous to one another.
FBI agents identified a computer using its IP address as a possible download candidate because there were over 25,000 files of investigative interest observed, which were files associated with keywords or hash values related to material consistent with suspected child pornography.
A subpoena was sent to Comcast on Oct. 23 for the dates and times the child pornography files were downloaded. FBI agents used the information provided by Comcast to track the IP address to Smith’s home in Howell.
After further investigation using an FBI undercover computer, authorities discovered that, between Oct. 16, 2024, and July 22, 2025, a computer using the same IP address shared several thousand files containing child pornography.
On April 20, law enforcement discovered that a computer using the IP address associated with Smith’s home had files containing child porn in about 5,000 instances between Jan. 14, 2025, and April 20, 2026.
The FBI began searching Smith’s home in Howell on May 5 and found multiple external drives hidden in the basement ceiling.
According to authorities, one of the hard drives contained about 1.55 TB of child pornography. Investigators are still reviewing the remaining storage.
During the search, federal investigators found a desktop computer in the basement laundry room, which appeared to have been disassembled and placed in the sink. “The desktop computer appeared to be wet, as if the faucet had been turned on while the computer was in the sink,” the FBI said in the criminal complaint.