A 52-year-old Dearborn man is facing federal felony charges alleging that he distributed and possessed child pornography, after an undercover FBI agent said he found the man operating inside an encrypted chat group under a disturbing alias. Aaron Price allegedly went by the username “Ice Cream Man” in the group, where officials say he shared explicit material and discussed sexual interests involving children.
According to a criminal complaint reported by WXYZ 7 News Detroit, an undercover FBI agent observed Price in the encrypted chat group, where officials allege he distributed multiple videos involving child sexual abuse on Aug. 15, 2026. The complaint and supporting affidavit were sworn before a U.S. magistrate judge Monday, setting the federal case in motion.
Chat Logs Allegedly Detail Disturbing Exchanges
Chat logs allege that Price discussed his sexual interests in minors between the ages of 7 and 12, exchanged explicit messages, and sent images of himself, including nude images, the station's report states. According to the complaint, the chats also included discussions of meeting purported minors at a river cabin for illegal sexual activities over the summer.
The specifics of that alleged summer plan and the full contents of the chat exchanges have not been independently detailed beyond what investigators laid out in the complaint, per the same account.
What Federal Charges Carry
Federal distribution of child pornography carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years and a maximum of 20 years in federal prison, while possession of child pornography carries a maximum sentence of 10 years, according to the reported penalties tied to Price's case. Related federal statute, 18 U.S.C. § 2252A, addresses knowingly selling or possessing with intent to sell child pornography that was mailed, shipped, or transported in interstate or foreign commerce, including by computer.
Price's case arrives amid a string of recent federal child exploitation prosecutions across Michigan. A Michigan man was separately reported to have uploaded 22 videos depicting child sexual abuse material to a cloud storage account over roughly four months, with agents later finding additional videos on devices seized from his home, according to ClickOnDetroit. In another case, the FBI accused a Michigan man identified as Carson James Lee Ensign of requesting and receiving sexually abusive images from a 10-year-old girl via TikTok and iMessage, as reported by The Detroit News.
Federal prosecutors in Michigan's Eastern District have pursued several child exploitation cases this year, including the detention of a Waterford-area umpire on child pornography allegations and the arraignment of a Freeland resident on child exploitation and related charges, according to filings from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan. In a separate earlier case out of that same district, a former Customs and Border Protection agent was sentenced to 60 months in prison for receiving child pornography, with evidence showing he had been logged into a chat account used to communicate with an undercover officer while working at the Gibraltar CBP station.
