Disney Cruise crew member accused of child porn possession — third arrested on similar charges this year
A Disney Cruise Line worker was arrested on child pornography charges, the third crew member at the cruise company to face allegations of child porn this year.
Tirso Neri, 44, of the Philippines, was a crew member on the Disney Dream ship.
U.S. Border Control and Homeland Security agents arrested Neri on Monday after discovering he had on his phone sexually explicit images and videos of children as young as 9 years old, according to a criminal complaint, Local 10 News reported.
The investigation into Neri began on Dec. 18 after agents boarded the Disney Dream ship when it arrived at the Port Everglades port in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, from the Bahamas and searched Neri's cabin.
Two phones in Neri's possession were confiscated by agents, who discovered "numerous sexually explicit photographs and videos of young children whose ages could not be definitely determined," the complaint states.
It was later revealed that Neri had a folder on a device with the name of a minor victim. The folder contained several explicit photos and videos of the minor, as well as a photo of her Philippines passport that revealed her date of birth, which confirmed she was 17 years old at the time the material was taken.
Neri told officers at Port Everglades that he downloads adult pornography and purchases links containing the explicit content from different group chats on Telegram and Facebook Messenger.
He claimed he received the folder with the images and videos of the 17-year-old girl from one of the group chats and saved it to his phone without looking to see what it contained.
However, a forensic review of his phone later determined that the images were saved and viewed by the phone's user.
Other videos later found on Neri's phone allegedly show a boy, between the ages of 10 and 12, engaging in sex with a girl between the ages of 12 and 14 and a young girl naked with a man along with the text "9 years old delicious" written in Filipino across the screen.
FLORIDA MAN WHO WORKED FOR DISNEY CRUISE LINE ARRESTED ON CHILD PORNOGRAPHY CHARGES
Neri was charged with possession of child pornography and transportation of child pornography. He is being held at Broward Main Jail.
A spokesperson for Disney Cruise Line told Local 10 News that Neri was no longer employed by the company.
"In accordance with our zero-tolerance policy for this kind of alleged behavior, this individual is no longer with the company," the spokesperson said in a statement.
Two other Disney Cruise Line employees — 49-year-old Alvin Gonzales and 28-year-old Amiel Trazo — were each arrested and charged in January with felony possession of child pornography. Gonzales and Trazo are also from the Philippines and worked aboard the Disney Dream.