A Social Circle man, 40-year-old Allen Eugene Ensminger, has been arrested and charged with possession of child pornography and distribution of child pornography after images of child porn were found on his computer.  

According to a press release from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Ensminger’s name came up when the GBI received information from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children regarding an individual in Georgia who was distributing several files of suspected child pornography via the Internet.

A search warrant was executed Friday at his home by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force and the GBI Athens Regional Office, the Social Circle Police Department, the Monroe Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF).

The GBI’s Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit determined the IP address distributing the images belonged to Ensminger. After completing forensic previews of a computer at the residence, a GBI agent obtained warrants charging Ensminger with one count of sexual exploitation of children (possession of child pornography) and one count of distribution of child pornography. Ensminger was transported to the Walton County Jail.

The search warrant also resulted in the seizure of a small amount of marijuana and 22 firearms, according to the press release. He was given a citation by Social Circle police for the marijuana and the firearms were seized by ATF pending further investigation by that agency.  

This investigation is part of the ongoing effort by the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, housed within the GBI’s Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit, to identify those involved in the child porn trade. The ICAC Program, created by the U.S. Department of Justice, was developed in response to the increasing number of children and teenagers using the Internet, the proliferation of child pornography, and the heightened online activity by predators searching for unsupervised contact with underage victims. The Task Force consists of 182 affiliate Georgia law enforcement agencies.

In 2008, the Georgia ICAC Task Force made 109 arrests and in 2009 made 164 arrests. In 2010, the Task Force made 162 arrests and in 2011, made 173 arrests. There were a total of 163 arrests made in 2012. There have been 974 arrests in Georgia by the ICAC Task Force since it was established in 2002.