GREENEVILLE, Tenn. – On October 11, 2017, Gregg Paul Smith, 48, of Kingsport, Tennessee, was sentenced by the Honorable J. Ronnie Greer, U.S. District Court Judge, to serve 151 months in federal prison as a result of his July 2017 guilty plea to receipt of child pornography and possession of stolen firearms. Upon his release from prison, he will be supervised by U.S. Probation for 15 years. There is no parole in the federal system.

The investigation of Smith was initiated when investigators with the Knoxville Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC) obtained child pornography images and videos uploaded through an internet file sharing service from an IP address associated with his address. A search warrant was executed at the residence and officers from the Kingsport Police Department and Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office seized computer equipment, which was found to contain thousands of images and videos containing child pornography. During the search, officers also found multiple firearms that were stolen from a firearms dealership where Smith was employed.

Agencies involved in this investigation included the Sullivan County Sheriff Department, Kingsport Police Department, Knoxville Police Department ICAC Task Force, and Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives. J. Gregory Bowman, Assistant U.S. Attorney represented the United States.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a Department initiative launched in 2006 that aims to combat the proliferation of technology-facilitated sexual exploitation crimes against children. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, PSC Marshals federal, state, tribal and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information visit ProjectSafeChildhood.gov.