A 66-year-old Mount Airy man is facing 11 child pornography charges after Frederick County Sheriff's Office investigators traced a tip about suspected online criminal activity back to a home in New Market. Barry Strong was indicted by a Frederick County grand jury on August 21 and arrested a week later, on Friday, after a monthlong investigation that began when deputies were called to the 11700 block of Old National Pike.
According to Daily Voice, deputies received information about suspected criminal activity online on July 29 and contacted Strong at the New Market address that same day. Two days later, on July 31, investigators executed a search warrant at a residence in the 12300 block of Catoctin View Drive in Mount Airy, where they seized numerous electronic devices and storage media as evidence, per the sheriff's office.
What the Grand Jury Indictment Alleges
The grand jury's August 21 indictment includes 10 counts of possession of child pornography and one count of solicitation of child pornography, the outlet reported. Strong was served with the arrest warrant on Friday at the Frederick County Adult Detention Center, where he was booked following his arrest. The sheriff's office has not released details about his next court appearance.
The county's Internet Crimes Against Children Section, which led the probe, operates in partnership with the Frederick County Cyber Crimes Task Force under grant funding from the Maryland Governor's Office of Crime Prevention and Policy, according to the Frederick County Sheriff's Office. That same office serves a jurisdiction of more than 290,000 residents spread across over 660 square miles of western Maryland, giving ICAC detectives a wide territory to cover between towns like New Market and Mount Airy.
Statutory Penalties and Registration Requirements
Under Section 11-208 of the Maryland Criminal Law Code, possession of child pornography depicting a minor under 16 is punishable by up to five years in prison and a $2,500 fine for a first offense, rising to as much as 10 years and $10,000 for subsequent offenses, according to legal guidance published by a Maryland sex crimes attorney. Solicitation of child pornography under Section 11-207 is treated more severely, carrying up to 10 years in prison and a $25,000 fine for a first offense, and up to 20 years and $50,000 for repeat offenses.
A conviction on either statute would trigger mandatory sex offender registration under Maryland Criminal Procedure Section 11-701, with simple possession requiring Tier I registration for 15 years and solicitation or distribution requiring Tier II registration for 25 years, according to legal analyses of the state's child sexual abuse material laws.
Part of a Broader Pattern of Local Cases
The case echoes other recent ICAC investigations in the county. In February, Frederick County Sheriff's Office detectives arrested a 19-year-old Frederick resident on eight counts of child pornography possession following a CyberTipline report from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which fielded 19.5 million CSAM reports nationwide in 2025. The Frederick County State's Attorney's Office and Cyber Crimes Task Force also maintain a grant-funded Electronic Storage Detection K9 named Duke, trained to sniff out a chemical compound found on circuit boards to help investigators locate hidden digital media during searches like the one on Catoctin View Drive.
Frederick County's case also lands amid heightened federal attention to online exploitation cases. In May, federal and state agencies across Maryland took part in the U.S. Department of Justice's monthlong Operation Iron Pursuit, which resulted in the arrest of more than 350 child sexual abuse offenders and the location of over 200 child victims nationwide, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland. Strong remains held at the Frederick County Adult Detention Center, which underwent a $15.3 million medical unit expansion in late 2024 to expand secure housing and medical care for its inmate population.
