WARREN, Mich. – A Warren man is charged with receiving and possessing child sexually abusive material after investigators say they found dozens of explicit videos sent to him through a mobile messaging app.
The FBI said he received as many as 20 videos in one day and even discussed wanting to sexually abuse boys as young as five years old.
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Although Danthony JaJaun Ray, 35, of Warren was not arrested until June of 2026, agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said the case involving Ray and another suspect goes back to September of 2025.
The original target
The FBI, according to a criminal complaint filed June 4, had been targeting a different person, whose phone was seized after agents said he had been distributing child sexually abusive material through a messaging app.
But a forensic review of that person’s phone found that he traded images and videos “meeting the federal definition of child pornography” with multiple people.
One of those recipients was Ray, the feds said.
Between March and June 2025, the FBI said Ray received “at least 70 videos containing child pornography” from the other man through the app.
On June 3, 2025, alone, Ray received at least 20 such videos, court records showed.
Federal investigators described the videos in graphic terms, including allegations involving the sexual abuse of toddlers and other minors.
Investigators also cited messages they said were exchanged between Ray and the original target (aka “Subject-1”) of their investigation.
Here is some of that alleged chat
Subject-1: I love seeing grown men touch on little boys
Ray: I know u do I like lil girls *devil emoji*
Subject-1: You don’t like lil boys?
Ray: Yes, I like both lol
Subject-1: Oh, okay, lol
Subject-1: I wanna see you touch on one
Ray: Send more bae
Ray: U will soon I get the right opportunity
Subject-1: [Sends at least 12 videos that meet the federal definition of child
pornography]
Subject-1: Fr bae? What all you gone do to him?
Ray: Make him (redacted for explicit nature)
Subject-1: Yes, baby, how young you want him
Ray: Like 5
The FBI said messaging app records connected the phone number to the username that received child sexually abusive material from their initial target (“Subject-1”).
Tracking down Ray
In May 2026, the FBI said they searched for location information tied to that same phone number and began receiving location data on May 12, 2026.
Agents said they reviewed it daily, adding that the data placed the phone most often near an identified address in Warren, except when it was at Ray’s workplace.
The feds said AT&T provided Wi-Fi calling data associated with an IP address, and that information showed the IP address belonged to Ray’s employer, an identified business in Livonia.
Agents said they then began surveilling Ray at his Warren home, observing a black Buick Encore SUV parked there on multiple occasions.
The vehicle was registered to Ray, according to the Michigan Secretary of State. Court records show the criminal complaint was unsealed and a warrant was issued for Ray’s arrest on June 10.
Ray has been ordered to jail pending trial.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 25, 2026, at 1 p.m. in Detroit.