The Most Magical Place On Earth Has a CSAM Problem
On the morning of April 23rd, 2026, Darmey Meetha was disembarking a Disney cruise ship at the B Street Cruise Terminal in San Diego, California. She and her family had spent four days aboard the Disney Magic. She said the trip and the service were good, mentioning specifically that two employees had taken care of her family for the entire voyage.
One of them was a dining host they saw every evening. He was a man they had eaten breakfast with that same morning, 45 minutes before she watched him get loaded into an unmarked white van in handcuffs. He was still wearing his Disney uniform when they took him in. Darmey filmed it. The footage shows what appears to be Customs and Border Protection officers moving through the disembarking crowd, pulling crew members aside and placing their hands behind their backs.
Some of them were still in blazers. Some still in their chef whites with their name tags on. >> [music] >> They were not told where they were going. Darmey said the man looked a little off at breakfast that morning, a little distracted, a little rushed. She figured he was just trying to get passengers off the ship and make room for the next group. He was not.
Within hours, Darmey had contacted Union del Barrio, a local immigration advocacy group in San Diego. Within days, multiple organizations had mobilized, all of whom were demanding answers. Who were these men? Where had they been taken to? Why had Disney said nothing? Two days later on April 25th, the same thing happened to four crew members from the Holland America Lines MV Zaandam, also docked in San Diego.
The groups held a press conference at the pier. Benjamin Prado, speaking on behalf of Union del Barrio and American Friends Service Committee, said, “We have a responsibility to ensure due process for these workers. Darmi Metta, when speaking publicly, framed what she had witnessed as a violation of workers’ rights.
If you have ever been lucky enough to go on a cruise, you know that passengers really like to get to know some of the people who take care of them while they’re at sea. So, it was no wonder that Darmi Metta was really pretty upset when she saw her favorite waiter being led away from the boat that was docked here in San Diego with his hands zip-tied behind his back.
>> This video clip was shot by one of Darmi Metta’s family members as they pulled out of the cruise terminal parking lot. In it, you see what looks like ICE agents loading workers into a white van. Earlier, while I was waiting to clear customs, I observed another set of officers with um other employees in restraints, um walking them off the boat and in restraints.
It put a real damper on what had been a fun five-day cruise from San Diego to Catalina to Ensenada and back home to San Diego aboard the Disney ship Magic. We witnessed that and it was really disheartening and unsettling um for purposes of just, you know, a lot of questions uh came up. What happens to these employees? Um where if they are to be released, where do they go? Uh how do they go home? Today, immigrant rights groups said at least 10 crew members were detained from the Disney Magic.
And two days later, the same thing happened to a handful of crew members on a Holland America ship. >> is not an isolated incident. In fact, it has become a growing pattern not only here in San Diego, but throughout this country. And so, as we see more abductions taking place, due process being suspended, access to consular services being limited, and absolutely no information about the whereabouts of these workers.
He says it has to stop and demanded ICE tell them where the crew members are being detained. NBC 7 reached out to ICE but have not heard back. It was really unsettling. Darmi Meda says her family became close with one member of the serving staff and now has concerns for him and his family. Troublesome for me and my family just because, you know, especially with this one employee that we got to know.
You know, we got to know his background, his story. We know he has a family, two daughters. He only had two more weeks on the ship and then he was going home for a month. >> And almost everyone watching assumed this was what was going on. An immigration enforcement sweep. People got angry on social media. The narrative ran for two weeks.
But finally the truth came out on May 7th, 2026. And it was more disturbing than anything anyone had assumed. We have an update for you now on a story we told you about earlier this week about several cruise ship employees who were detained at the Embarcadero two weeks ago. Customs and Border Protection now says it was part of an ongoing child pornography operation.
CBP says it interviewed 28 crew members from several ships. It found 27 of them were involved in some type of child activity. CBP canceled their visas and returned them to their countries. Some cruise ship passengers and migrants groups held a news conference this week demanding more answers as to why the crew members were detained right off the ships.
US Customs and Border Protection confirmed to multiple news outlets that between April 23rd and April 27th, agents had boarded eight cruise ships docked in San Diego as part of an ongoing C-SAM enforcement operation. Homeland Security Investigations separately confirmed that on April 28th that 23 crew members had been arrested from multiple cruise ships as part of an operation that they called Operation Tidal Wave.
All arrests were based on information received from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. 28 people were taken off those ships. 26 from the Philippines, one from Portugal, one from Indonesia. Customs and Border Protection confirmed that 27 of the 28 were involved in either the receipt, possession, transportation, distribution, or viewing of CSAM.
When we say 27 people on those ships were found in possession of CSAM, we are saying that 27 people were carrying recordings of children being abused on their phones. On ships full of families with children. The man who had cheerfully served Army and her family was secretly a dangerous predator. All 28 had their visas canceled and were deported.
Disney Cruise Line was founded on February 6th, 1996, and launched its first ship, the Disney Magic, in 1998. It was designed from the beginning as an extension of the Disney Parks experience. The idea that Disney properties are the safest, most magical, most family-friendly environments on Earth. That is what people are paying for when they book a Disney cruise.
The ship is presented as a contained, curated world where children can be children, parents can relax. Because this is Disney, and Disney is safe. The line currently operates nine ships. The Disney Magic, Disney Wonder, Disney Dream, Disney Fantasy, Disney Wish, Disney Treasure, Disney Destiny, Disney Adventure, and Disney Believe.
With Disney Magic being the ship that launched the line in 1998. And the ship at the center of the 2026 sting. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is a federally designated nonprofit that receives reports of online CSAM, analyzes them, and routes tips to law enforcement. When the organization flags a device or an account, authorities can use that information to identify suspects and target them when ships return to US ports.
Operation Tidal Wave was not a random sweep because they had flagged specific devices connected to specific individuals. April of 2026 was not when this started, meaning Disney did not suddenly have a CSAM problem that month. The arrests at the Port of San Diego were the loudest and most public moment in a story that had been building for more than a decade.
In 2024, the year before Operation Tidal Wave, three Disney Dream crew members were arrested at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Florida over the span of roughly 3 months. All three of these men were Filipino nationals who were detained after agents boarded the ship and searched their cabins when it returned to port.
The first was 49-year-old Alvin Gonzalez, arrested on January 31st, 2024. During a border search, when Alvin stepped off the Disney Dream, a micro SD card was found in his possession with a video depicting two children engaged in sexual acts. Alvin told investigators he had received the file 8 to 10 years prior and claimed no interest in CSAM.
The Broward State Attorney’s Office ultimately filed no information on the case, meaning that prosecutors declined to pursue charges. The second was 28-year-old Amiel Joseph Trazo, also arrested in January of 2024. Nine separate tips about him were sent before agents moved in. When agents boarded the ship at Port Everglades and searched his devices, they found graphic images and video of children between the ages of 6 and 14 on his iPhone.
Joseph told investigators he belonged to a group chat on Facebook Messenger where he received CSAM. He admitted to sharing some of it with his friends and his girlfriend, too, in his words, to tease them. He also told agents he needs help, knows it’s wrong, and it is bad for his religion. The third was 44-year-old Terso Anthony Nieri.
He worked on the Disney Dream and was arrested on April 15th, 2024. The investigation into him had begun months earlier in December of 2023 when agents boarded the ship upon arrival from the Bahamas and searched his cabin. On two of his cell phones, they found what the federal criminal complaint described as numerous sexually explicit photographs and videos of young children whose ages could not be definitively determined.
Terso told investigators he belonged to several group chats on Telegram and Facebook Messenger where he downloaded and purchased adult content. He said he sometimes received folders in those chats, saved them to his phone without looking at the contents, and deleted them afterwards. But a forensic review of both devices told a very different story.
One video showed a boy between ages 10 and 12 engaged in act with a girl between 12 and 14. Another showed a young girl and a man with text in Tagalog across the screen reading “9 years old, delicious.” Agents also found a folder titled with what appeared to be a victim’s name containing numerous sexually explicit images and videos of a girl who appeared to be under 18.
Filipino passport photograph in that same folder confirmed she was 17 at the time the material was taken. According to People magazine, who obtained a copy of the federal complaint, Terso was charged with possession and transportation of CSAM and was booked into the Broward Main Jail. Disney issued a statement, and I quote, “In accordance with our zero-tolerance policy for this kind of alleged behavior, this individual is no longer with the company.
” That statement, or some version of it, Disney issued three times over 3 months. That was in 2024, but the pattern goes back at least until 2012. On August 5th, 2012, the Disney Dream was docked at Port Canaveral, Florida. An 11-year-old girl from Brazil was cornered in an elevator by a Disney dining room server named Milton Bergonza.
He repeatedly grabbed her breasts through her clothing and forcibly kissed her on the mouth. The entire thing was captured on the ship’s surveillance cameras. This happened before 3:00 in the afternoon. The ship was not leaving until 5:00. The girl reported it immediately. She and her grandmother walked directly over to the guest services counter.
Disney security opened an investigation at 3:22 p.m. By 3:57, the girl had led a security officer back to the elevator where it had occurred. By 4:48, a dining manager had reviewed the footage and identified Milton by name and position. The Disney Dream left Port Canaveral at 5:02 p.m. No one had reported anything to the police.
Disney did not report the incident to local police until the following day, August 6th. By then, the ship was at sea and Milton himself was not pulled off the dining room floor until 7:50 that evening. Nearly 3 hours after the dining manager had identified him by name on the surveillance footage and nearly 3 hours after the Dream had cleared the dock.
Port Canaveral Police Chief Joseph Hellebrand later said that if a crime had been reported while the ship was docked, his department would have responded. His exact words were, and I quote, “We would have sent an officer aboard the ship. We would have notified the on-call detective. We would have interviewed the family, the victim, the suspect.
” He made clear that the arrest would have proceeded regardless of whether the family wanted to pursue it. Had Florida authorities been notified while the Disney Dream was still at the dock, Milton would likely have faced a felony sentence of 25 years to life in prison. That option was removed when Disney sailed the ship.
When the Dream arrived in Nassau, Bohemian authorities assumed jurisdiction as the Disney Dream is registered in the Bahamas. Milton was questioned by Nassau police on August 7th. He eventually admitted, and I quote, “I touched her on her right breast with my left hand.” At that point, two days into what was meant to be a five-day Caribbean cruise, the girl’s grandmother had decided she did not want the crime investigated further.
Disney removed Milton from the ship. Under his employment contract, the company was obligated to cover his travel home, and they did. By putting him on a plane back to India. A WKM G local 6 investigation broke the story in May of 2013, nearly a year after the incident had taken place. The reporters had obtained Disney’s own confidential security incident report, which made clear that the company had known within hours that a crime had been committed and had not contacted law enforcement before the ship sailed.
Disney’s initial public claim that they had reported the crime while still in port was directly contradicted by their own documents and by Port Canaveral police. Disney’s official statement said they had notified all of the authorities, including the Port Canaveral Police Department, the Royal Bahamian Police Force, the Coast Guard, and the FBI and took proper action.
Port Canaveral Police Chief said that was not true. Milton flew home to India. He was never charged with a crime in the United States, and likely was never charged in India, either. In 2016, Disney Cruise Line voluntarily published what it called an allegation disclosure covering the first quarter of that year under the framework of the Cruise Vessel [snorts] Security and Safety Act of 2010.
The act was passed with the stated goal of creating a national database of cruise ship crimes and requiring cruise lines to report serious felonies to the FBI. What it became in practice was more limited than that. Travel journalist Peter Greenberg reported that prior to its passage, the FBI’s public records showed more than 400 cruise ship crimes.
After the bill was signed in what Peter Greenberg described as a watered-down form, the public database showed fewer than a dozen. The act requires reporting to the FBI, but the public database only contains cases that are no longer under active investigation. Everything currently being investigated stays out of public view.
Disney’s Q1 2016 allegation disclosure reported three incidents. Two separate claims of alleged SA made by a guest against another guest, and one claim of theft of property valued over $10,000 made by a passenger against a crew member. That’s three incidents in one quarter carrying approximately 250,000 passengers and 5,000 crew members across the entire fleet.
The disclosure does not and cannot tell you how many incidents fell below the reporting threshold or how many were classified in ways that didn’t require federal notification. All Disney Cruise Line ships are registered in the Bahamas, not the United States. The open seas, the law that applies is the law of the country whose flag the ship flies.
Within 24 miles of a US port, American law can assert jurisdiction, but only if law enforcement is actually notified. If Disney doesn’t call the local police, the local police have no reason to show up. To understand the scale of what we’re talking about, the Cruise Law News website, which independently tracks maritime crime, reported around the time of Operation Title Wave that nearly 200 cruise ship crew members had been accused of possessing C-SAM in the previous 2 years alone.
Over 20 have been arrested and prosecuted domestically. Around 170 have been deported. Another two dozen cruise passengers had also been caught with CSAM at US ports of entry. Now, this is not purely a Disney problem. This is a cruise industry problem. Disney is the most visible name because the brand promises the sharpest contrast to what’s actually being found on those ships.
Just weeks before Operation Tidal Wave, a former Florida massage therapist named Javaris Leshay McNealy disembarked the Carnival Conquest at Port Miami on April 6th, 2026. When agents checked the phone he was carrying, they pulled up his Telegram account and found a stockpile of at least 50 videos. Federal authorities described what was in those videos as the SA of prepubescent boys and girls.
He wasn’t just collecting it, either. He was distributing it online. When investigators pressed him, he said straight out that he would buy, trade, and download CSAM. He had lost his Florida massage therapist license in 2021 after state regulators found he had engaged in sexual misconduct with a client. He had previously pled no contest to misdemeanor battery in a 2018 case in Charlotte County, where he had originally been arrested.
Carnival, like Disney, publicly claims that it checks public records and offender databases and advertises a partnership with Interpol for enhanced security and screening prior to boarding. None of that stopped this child predator from getting on a ship. What does screening actually look like for crew members recruited from countries whose criminal records are not always accessible through US databases? Background checks for international crew are not federally regulated.
What a cruise line claims it checks and what it can actually confirm through foreign records are two very different questions. Neither Disney nor Carnival has disclosed the specific details of its international cruise screening process to the public. What the record shows is that three Disney Dream crew members were arrested for CSAM in 2024.
At least 10 Disney Magic crew members were arrested as part of Operation Tidal Wave in 2026. And the company’s public response across all of it has been the same sentence about zero tolerance. There is no closure to offer here in the traditional sense. There is no trial date and there is no sentencing. 28 men arrested in Operation Tidal Wave were removed from the country.
Their identities were never released by Customs and Border Protection. The ships they worked on have continued their scheduled sailings. Disney’s San Diego port expansion is proceeding on schedule. Somewhere there are children who were hurt, filmed, and had those recordings shared in Telegram group chats by men who were at the same time working on cruise ships full of families.
We do not know if those children are aware that their images are still in circulation. We do not know if anyone has told them. What we know is that the material existed. 27 of the 28 men confirmed by Customs and Border Protection to have been in possession of it were removed from the country without any domestic criminal prosecution being announced.
At least none that was made public. Disney Magic is still at sea and the company responded to individual arrests in 2024 into a mass sting in 2026 with the same sentence about zero tolerance. A sentence that had no deterrent effect on the pedophiles they hired. That statistic from Cruise Law News deserves a closer look.
Nearly 200 cruise ship crew members accused of CSAM possession in 2 years. 170 deported. >> [music] >> Just how many are still working on ships right now? Carrying phones that have not been searched. Operation Tidal Wave was triggered because someone saw recordings being shared on Telegram and on Twitter and reported them.
The system worked in the sense that it produced 28 arrests. It did not work in the sense that 28 people were already aboard the ship full of children by the time the arrests happened. The children had already been harmed. None of the passengers on any of those eight ships could have known. The children in those videos did not know either.
The parents who handed their kids off to crew members in Disney uniforms, trusting a brand that has spent decades promising the safest, most magical environment their money can buy. They did not know. Nobody booking a Disney cruise imagines that some of the people in those Disney uniforms are predators walking around with recordings of children being essayed on their phones.
The men on those ships knew that. And that is what they were counting on.
