A Celebrity Cruises crew member was arrested in Fort Lauderdale by federal agents who found child sexual abuse material on his phone when he disembarked in Port Everglades.
According to Local 10 News (WPLG), who reviewed criminal federal court documents (which you can review here), Celebrity crew member Dennis Ofrancia De Leon, age 44, a Filipino national, disembarked the Celebrity Reflection on Monday. Homeland Security agents found “multiple videos/photographs” depicting child sexual abuse material. The criminal court file indicated that the agents found videos “showing boys and girls being raped or otherwise sexually abused . . .”
The court file indicated that De Leon admitted to viewing content showing victims under the age of 10.
This is at least the fourth or fifth crew member arrested in South Florida for possession of graphic child pornoghraphy in just the last three months, to wit:
- Tirso Anthony Neri, age 44, a crew member on the Disney Dream cruise ship based in Port Everglades, was charged last month with violating 18 USC 2252(a)(i) (transportation of child pornography) and 2252(a)(4)(B) (possession of child pornography) after agents for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations found pornographic images of children as young as age nine on his cell phones.
- Disney ship employee Alvin Gonzalez, age 49, was also arrested on the Disney Dream in early February of this year for possession of a video of a boy, believed to be as young as 8, and a girl, estimated to be as young as 12, having intercourse with each other.
- Amiel Trazo, another Disney crew member on the Disney Dream, age 28, was arrested in late February on charges of possessing numerous materials depicting graphic child sexual abuse “with children between the approximate ages of 6 and 14.”
- Jamaal Wade, a dancer hired by RWS Global to work on a cruise ship operated by Holland America Line (HAL) was arrested last month for possessing a large quantity of child pornography (more than 15 videos), which he brought on the ship, depicting children as young as “two years old engaged in sexual acts with adults.” Wade was hired to perform on the HAL cruise ship notwithstanding that he had a criminal record which included charges of molesting an 11-year-old boy.
Top left – Tirso Anthony Neri (Disney Dream); top right – Anthony Gonzalez (Disney Dream); bottom left – Amiel Trazo (Disney Dream); and Cris Castor (Celebrity Silhouette).
This is not the first time that a Celebrity crew member was arrested on charges of possessing child sexual abuse materials. Cris John Pentinio Castor, a Celebrity youth counselor, was arrested after sexually abusing at least four children aboard the Celebrity Silhouette after a 6-year-old came forward and reported him.
The significant number of crew members arrested for child pornography raises questions of the cruise industry’s hiring protocols. There is no sexual predator database outside of the U.S. where these particular crew members were hired. It is clear to us after reviewing hundreds of crew member personnel files over the years that cruise lines do not perform adequate investigations into the pre-employment history of prospective employees.
You can read more about the problem of crew members possessing child abuse materials and child molestation on cruise ships on our blog here and here.
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Image credit: Celebrity Reflection – Master0Garfield commons/wikimedia; Dennis De Leon; Local 10 News (WPLG)
