Local pilot arrested for alleged child porn collection

HOUSTON The defendant Todd Ewanko, of Atascocita, is a pilot for Colgan Air, which subcontracts for Continental Express flights. Ewanko, 46, was arrested and charged with six counts of child pornography, each a second-degree felony due to his alleged intent to reproduce and distribute these materials.

On Thursday, investigators from the Harris County Pct. 4 Constable Hi-Tech Crimes unit along with members of the Houston Metro ICAC initiated a search warrant at a residence located in the 19700 blk. of Atascocita Shores Drive. They say more than six encrypted 1 terabyte hard drives with millions of images of child sexual abuse images were discovered. Ewanko was interviewed and admitted to "collecting" the child porn.

Investigators say from the items discovered, it appears that Ewanko was an advanced user and collector of abuse images and had built his own machines for the express purposes of viewing. Investigators also discovered DVDs of child porn in large DVD containers where he had made the labels for the disks using the actual child sexual abuse images he had downloaded for his collections.

This case is considered by seasoned investigators as one of the largest if not the largest caches of child pornography and child sexual abuse cases downloaded and traded by one individual in recent history.

Ewanko is in custody on a $600,000 bond.