A Disney Cruise Line worker was arrested on child pornography charges in Florida on Monday after federal authorities said they found disturbing images on his phone.
The man, a native of the Philippines, is the third company employee to face child porn charges just this calendar year.
According to WPLG, 44-year-old Tirso Neri was met Monday by U.S. Border Control and Homeland Security agents as his ship docked at the Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale.
CREW MEMBER JAILED: Federal authorities accuse a Disney Cruise Line worker of possessing child sexual abuse material. He’s the third crew member to face such charges in South Florida this year. https://t.co/vFgsy3MNHS
— WPLG Local 10 News (@WPLGLocal10) April 16, 2024
The vessel, the Disney Dream Ship, had just returned from a cruise to the Bahamas.
Agents had confiscated two phones from Neri last December and were ready to bring him in when the Disney ship docked.
According to a complaint against him filed in the U.S. Southern District of Florida, Neri had nude images of children on his phone, the New York Post reported.
Their ages ranged from as young as 9 to as old as 17. Images of both boys and girls were allegedly found.
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Neri was in possession of “numerous sexually explicit photographs and videos of young children whose ages could not be definitely determined,” the complaint claimed.
Per the complaint, one folder on the phone was of a girl from Neri’s native country, which contained a passport image that confirmed her age.
The alleged pedophile said he had not viewed the images on the file, but a forensic review of the device proved otherwise, police claimed.
He also claimed to only have been interested in adult pornography and said he must have “saved it to his phone without looking at it and had not deleted the folder,” WPLG reported.
Neri said he routinely received pornography on both Facebook Messenger and Telegram from people with whom he is in a group chat.
However, according to federal agents, Neri was also in possession of some files that contained videos of boys and girls aged 9 to 14 engaged in sexual activity, according to the Post.
Police said they unearthed another shocking video.
A file that was titled “9 years old delicious” in Neri’s native language allegedly showed a young girl nude with a grown man.
Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Eric Stowers said a probe into Neri was launched last December, WPLG reported.
Neri is charged with counts of possession of child pornography and transportation of child pornography and is being held in the Broward Main Jail.
Neri was terminated by Disney after his arrest, the company said in a statement obtained by WPLG.
“In accordance with our zero-tolerance policy for this kind of alleged behavior, this individual is no longer with the company,” a representative for Disney Cruise Line said.
Two other Disney Dream employees — 49-year-old Alvin Gonzales and 28-year-old Amiel Trazo – were each arrested in January on child pornography charges, per the Post.
It was unclear Wednesday as to whether Neri’s case is linked to those of Gonzales and Trazo, both of whom are also from the Philippines.
