Two young daughters and their mother boarded Royal Caribbean ‘s , Symphony of the Seas , in , Fort Lauderdale , on a February evening for an eight-day family vacation, anxious for an escape to Aruba’s picturesque shores and Curacao’s crystal clear water.
At water the next day, the younger sister, while using her house bath, noticed anything peculiar when she reached under the sink for toilet paper. A tiny camera was spotted by the woman as it was headed toward the shower. The household immediately called visitor services, which alerted deliver security.
Send security officials investigated and detained a , Royal Caribbean , place operator. He was kept under guarded captivity until officers met the ship when it returned to , Port Everglades , a week later on , March 3.
Law enforcement officers discovered” some videos of nude females undressing in their bathrooms” while searching his digital products, including a USB stay device. One woman seemed to be 10 years outdated, they said.
On , Tuesday, Oct. 15, a group activity civil lawsuit was filed in , Miami , federal prosecutor against , Royal Caribbean Cruises , and , Arvin Mirasol, the original Royal Caribbean staff member. The plaintiff, called , Jane Doe , in the problem and represented by the , Miami , strong Lipcon, Margulies &, Winkleman, was a traveler aboard Symphony of the Seas on or about , Feb. 25, 2024.
The petition comes less than two weeks after Mirasol was sentenced in , Fort Lauderdale , federal judge to 30 years in prison on a charge of producing child sex.
On , Aug. 28,  , U. S.  , Judge , Melissa Damian , gave the maximum possible sentence to Mirasol, a 34-year-old , Philippines , regional who had pleaded guilty a few months before.
The civil complaint is one of several likely to be brought against , Royal Caribbean , in the next quarter. This occurs as legislation enforcement attempts to stop the spread of photos across the murky waters of the computer. The number of sufferers may be significantly higher than what was first suspected in the lawsuits.  , The Miami Herald , has reached out to , Royal Caribbean , for opinion on the first of the matches.
This time, at least 16 staff members from many journey giants have returned to , South Florida , ports on their ships only to get hauled away in handcuffs, according to , Jim Walker, co-founder of the company Walker &, O’Neil Maritime Lawyers. Almost all were charged with hands or transfer of child pornography, a federal offense.
” That is an unusually high number”, compared to earlier decades, he said. He has tracked , South Florida , cruise ship scenarios for years and says” the number of prosecutions on infant porn have become more regular in the past two years”.
Emerging sail ship patients
Arvin Mirasol , also faces charges in , Florida , state judge of up to 15 matters of “video voyeurism”. His second reading in , Broward Circuit Court , was scheduled for , Oct. 15.
At least 23 citizens have been notified by officers that they were recorded on a , Royal Caribbean , sail, and they’ve hired attorneys. In addition to Lipcon, at least two , Miami , law companies say they expect to file legal complaints against the boat business in the coming quarter.
” I think there are scores of people out there who were affected but do n’t know”, said , John H. Hickey, founding partner of Hickey Law Firm. The sea attorney’s organization represents two people, each with kids, he said.
Mirasol admitted in his plea deal that he had been using camcorders in the rooms of his guest rooms” since he started working on Symphony of the Seas around December 2023.”
That implies that he might possess worked on 12 various excursions prior to the one in which he was arrested. Six of those would have been six-night vacations and six were eight-night visits, according to Royal Caribbean’s published stay. All departed and returned to , Port Everglades , in , Fort Lauderdale.
The class activity suit filed Tuesday by Lipcon, Margulies &, Winkleman alleges there could be “up to 960 customers” who are patients, said , Jason Margulies, an attorney and spouse with the company, which represents more than 10, including the woman who found the lens.
The complaint defines the class as passengers aboard Symphony of the Seas between , Dec. 1, 2023, and , Feb. 26, 2024, who stayed in cabins serviced by Mirasol.
The lawsuit claims that Mirasol intentionally caused emotional distress as a result of video voyeurism and sexual assault, as well as liability from Royal Caribbean and British Airways. The lawsuit also accuses , Royal Caribbean , of inadequately training and supervising workers aboard the vessel and failing to “implement and/or enforce an adequate safety management system”.
Because of the sexual nature of the crimes and the ages of victims, the law firms and the , Miami Herald , are not identifying the passengers.
Nick Gerson, a lawyer with , Miami-based Gerson &, Schwartz, said he is representing seven victims, including three kids, ranging from 12 to 17. On behalf of its clients, his firm plans to sue , Royal Caribbean , for emotional and physical stress.
The effects” will be sneaking up on these kids for years,” he said. ” All the families are in counseling”.
Royal Caribbean , said in March that after Mirasol was arrested, the company fired him. At that time,  , Jonathon Fishman, a spokesman for , Royal Caribbean, told the , Miami Herald , that” we immediately reported this to law enforcement and terminated the crew member, and we will continue to fully cooperate with authorities”.
Watching kids undress
Mirasol regularly cleaned passenger rooms, restocked towels and changed sheets on the vessel, which carries 5, 518 passengers and 2, 200 crew members. But that was n’t all he did, according to court filings and the criminal complaint from the Broward County Sheriff’s office.
One video that law enforcement reviewed” clearly depicts the defendant installing the camera” in a guest room. ” The camera is aimed towards the shower”.
A girl then enters the restroom. She’s wearing a yellow-orange wristband on her left hand indicating she is a minor. She takes off her clothes and heads to the shower. ” The child appears to be 10 years of age”.
In another video, in the same guest room, the girl is still showering, then finishes and gets dressed. A boy also enters the same room. ” He is believed to be the female child’s younger brother”. Each video lasts five minutes.
Mirasol’s cellphone search history included “hidden cameras” and other terms associated with child sexual abuse material, according to the complaint. He also admitted to entering rooms and hiding under the bed to record people naked.
After being given his rights, Mirasol admitted to recording guests taking showers and undressing in the staterooms he was assigned. He claimed that he would “pleasure himself” after retrieving the camera and watching the video.
He stated that he tried to choose females who were 16 years old or older and that videotaping underage girls was against the law. Yet, in its forensic analysis of his devices, the federal Homeland Security Investigations found about 11 children in videos, ranging from 2 to 17 years old.
” I want to control it, but I ca n’t”, he noted.
On , June 5, he and federal prosecutors reached a plea agreement. Mirasol admitted to coercing a minor to perform sexually explicit acts in order to visually represent it, transport, and share those images.
As it reviewed the videos Mirasol recorded, federal agents also requested passenger manifests from , Royal Caribbean , from each cruise Mirasol was on. Then they called travelers, telling them they might have been victims and providing them with information about what transpired.
Finding all the victims
Loretta Guevara, an attorney at the Hickey Law Firm, said that as recently as the end of June, one of their clients was told by the , Department of Homeland Security , that the agency was still reviewing footage.
They were still attempting to identify the victims and notify them because there were so many photos and videos of various passengers, she said.
The investigation remains ongoing, according to the government.
Federal agents are also attempting to stop the spread of exploitative images in addition to looking for all the victims in the Mirasol case. That’s one key reason for the spate of arrests of other crew workers, said Margulies, the maritime lawyer. There were few arrests before the ex-Royal Caribbean , room attendant but a bunch after, suggesting the feds are trying to crack down on the circulation of the images, he said.
Iputuagus Karnawan and Imadewisma Dana, both 28, who are reportedly employed by Carnival, were detained in PortMiami in June and are facing charges of having child porn on their phones. Both are Indonesian nationals.
These and other cases from this year may seem less serious than the Mirasol case because the defendants are being accused of possessing and/or transporting child pornography as opposed to producing it on a ship, a direct violation of a passenger’s privacy. But they are still federal crimes.
” Both are committing harms against children”, said , Jennifer Newman, national director of the exploited children division of the , National Center for Missing &, Exploited Children. ” Every time that image is shared and recirculated, that child is being victimized”.
Since the victims were digitally recorded,” the resulting media files are easily duplicated, uploaded to remote servers worldwide, disseminated via peer-to-peer sharing, and are subject to posting on the world wide web and the dark web, where voyeuristic recordings as these are traded, sold, viewed, and downloaded by all types of people”, Margulies said.
The lawsuit that his firm filed , Oct. 15 , alleges that the “plaintiff lives in a constant fear, reasonably under the circumstances, that images of the plaintiff undressed while engaging in private activities are regularly viewed by others and used for illicit purposes”.
More cases on cruise ships
The issues extend beyond just one instance.
On , April 15, the feds filed a complaint in , South Florida , federal court against , Tirso Neri, charging him with transportation and possession of child pornography. He had worked for , Disney Cruises , for the past 10 years. HSI agents and , U. S. Customs and Border Protection , found videos of children about 9 to 16 years old on his electronics in over 100 images.
And around  , Jan. 17, after Disney Dream returned to , Port Everglades, crew member , Amiel Joseph Trazo , was accused of possessing and transporting child pornography. In this case, Homeland Security Investigations said it received tips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMPP ).
The number of cases this year raises the question of whether the situation with cruise ships ‘ children is getting worse than it has in the past. Remote cameras and other monitoring tools are becoming more affordable and less expensive, making them easier to find and carry. Content is made available via social media.
Neri, the former Disney employee, told HSI agents that he was on several group chats on Telegram and , Facebook , Messenger and downloaded porn from there.
Official data on the number of child sexual exploitation or child porn cases in the cruise industry is not maintained by the government nor the cruise industry, either by the carriers or their trade group. That’s a source of frustration to victims ‘ groups.
Asked if HSI is seeing a strong link between cruise ships and child sex exploitation cases,  , Anthony Salisbury, special agent in charge with HSI, told the , Miami Herald,” No, we’re not. … We are going after it everywhere”.
However, victims ‘ organizations, child advocates, and maritime attorneys think cruise companies and the industry should be more open and honest about how they are communicating with the public and each other about how they are dealing with the issue.
” They can be more proactive as a group”, said Newman, the official with the , National Center for Missing &, Exploited Children.
She suggested learning from the hotel industry.  , The American Hotel , and , Lodging Association  , set up a foundation, the , AHLA Foundation, to help members extinguish child sex trafficking they were seeing and have been public about it.
Additionally, background checks and hiring procedures for cruise companies are under more scrutiny. The lawsuit filed , Oct. 15 , alleges that , Royal Caribbean , failed to “adequately interview, assess, conduct background checks, obtain peer reviews, investigate, confirm recommendations, and conduct other enhanced vetting of employee crewmembers with direct access to passenger cabins”.
Cruise companies will employ onboard about 300, 000 people this year from more than 150 countries, according to the , Cruise Lines International Association. ” Cruise lines focus their recruitment efforts on established bases for crew such as , the Philippines,  , Indonesia,  , India,  , China, and Eastern Europe”, the industry group wrote in a report.
For example, 63 percent of Royal Caribbean’s shipboard workforce is from , the Philippines,  , Indonesia , or , India, the top three suppliers, according to according to a 2023 company regulatory filing with the , U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The expansion and globalization of cruising are a result of the international workforce. At the same time, some legal experts say that several of these countries do n’t do adequate screening, or often delegate it to third-party agencies without oversight.
” Many of these countries do n’t have an adequate criminal record keeping system”, Hickey said
Disney declined to answer questions from the , Miami Herald , on the individual cases, background checks, criminal screening and training for its crew members.
Royal Caribbean perspective
At , Royal Caribbean,”” we do background checks on all employees,” said , Heather Hust Rivera, senior vice president and global chief communications officer.
She added that the business provides in-depth training. We have a number of distinct procedures and policies in place that address the safety of our guests and crew.
The trade group’s members defended their position and said cruising is safer than a regular day on land, according to Sally Andrews, vice president of strategic communications and public affairs for the Cruise Lines International Association.
” Our industry has a long history of demonstrating the commitment to safety and security,” she said in a statement”, with crime rates that are very low as a result of policies, hiring protocols, training and immediate action.”
Nick Gerson, the Gerson &, Schwartz attorney, said cruise companies could take steps to improve security.
” It is more difficult to get a job in private security in , Florida , than on a cruise ship, “he said, noting that the state requires a security license and training.
” They do n’t to enough to vet the crew members they are hiring,” Gerson said.
In the Mirasol case, Hickey Law attorney , Loretta Guevara , wonders why crew members are allowed to bring remote cameras on board, which unlike phone or cameras, are n’t for personal use.
It should n’t be hard to search them as they board, she said.
Should crew members have access to remote camera equipment on cruise ships? ” Guevara asked”. What would be the purpose?”
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