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Council Bluffs Man Sentenced for Receipt of Child Pornography

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December 10th, 2018 by Ric Hanson

A man from Pottawattamie County was sentenced last week to serve slightly more than nine-years in prison for the receipt of child pornography. 36-year old Beau Croghan, of Council Bluffs, was sentenced Dec. 6th. He was also ordered to serve 10-years of supervised release following the completion of his prison term. A jury found the Croghan guilty of Receipt of Child Pornography on August 22, 2018, for his involvement in an undercover sting.

“Operation Pacifier” was an investigation conducted by the FBI into Playpen, a website on The Onion Router (TOR) hosted as hidden service. Playpen operated as a message-board type website where registered users would distribute and share images and videos of child pornography. Croghan registered with Playpen on September 27, 2014, and Croghan was actively logged into Playpen for over 13 hours between September 27, 2014, and March 4, 2015.

The matter was investigated by Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.