Law enforcement investigating an Aitkin County man suspected of illegal gun possession also found hundreds of files of child pornography and web searches on his phone related to police ambushes and killings, according to new federal charges.
The U.S. Attorney's Office last week charged Juan Michael Smith, 46, with being a felon in possession of a firearm via a criminal complaint, a little more than a week after he was arrested on similar state charges.
According to the federal criminal complaint, a sergeant from the Aitkin County Sheriff's Office began investigating Smith following a tip from a concerned citizen on Feb. 12. The concerned citizen — who knew Smith — reported that Smith was in possession of more than 100 guns at a residence he recently purchased in Verdon Township, more than 150 miles north of Minneapolis.
Smith has several prior felony convictions and is registered as a predatory offender in Minnesota, all of which render him ineligible to possess firearms or ammunition. Law enforcement late last month obtained a series of search warrants for Smith's residence, his vehicle and cellphone. During a traffic stop on Feb. 24, Smith told investigators that they would find firearms at his home but that they belonged to his daughter.
Inside the residence, officers found four firearms in plain view: a Tisas model 1911 .45 caliber semiautomatic pistol, a Rossi model RS22 .22 caliber rifle, an American Tactical model Alpha Maxx multicaliber rifle and a Tokarev model TAR 12P 12-gauge semiautomatic shotgun.
Officers also found various calibers of ammunition in the living room and kitchen, and suspected cocaine on the kitchen table. He was later arrested and charged with possessing firearms and ammunition as a felon before being released on bail.
According to an affidavit signed by a special agent for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), law enforcement searching Smith's phone found a "large amount" of child pornography on it. This allegedly included hundreds of files that showed "clearly prepubescent children being sexually abused and assaulted by adults."
They also uncovered screen captures of online purchases of firearms that were shipped to a federally licensed dealer in Robbinsdale. And Smith allegedly sent text messages to a woman believed to be his daughter in which he tells her that he had ordered firearms and needed her to pick them up.
The affidavit notes that some of the phone's internet search history included references to violence against law enforcement, including a search for "supplies" used by a man who ambushed and killed five police officers in Dallas in 2005.
Smith has prior felony convictions that include domestic assault in 2001, third-degree drug possession in 2016 and failure to register as a predatory offender in 2019 — all in Stearns County.
Charges against Smith were unsealed Friday after he made his first appearance. U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Cowan Wright ordered Smith to be temporarily detained and he remains in federal custody in Sherburne County jail. Smith is next scheduled to appear in court on Friday for a detention hearing and preliminary examination. A message has been left seeking comment from an attorney listed for Smith.
