U.S. Federal agents arrested a man working as a crew member for Disney Cruise Line on two federal charges for possessing numerous child sexual abuse material, according to a criminal complaint filed yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida (Broward County).
Tirso Anthony Neri, age 44, was identified in court records as a crew member on the Disney Dream cruise ship based in Port Everglades. Neri was charged 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.
Crew member Neri is the third crew member on the Disney Dream to be arrested in the last two months. 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, 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.”
The investigation into Disney crew member Neri began in mid-December of last year. Neri waived his Miranda rights and admitted in questioning by federal agents that he participated in several group chats on Telegraph and Facebook Messenger chat apps from which he downloaded pornography online.
These three Disney crew members are just some of the numerous sexual pedophile perverts recently caught by U.S. authorities on cruise ships. Cris John Pentinio Castor, a 35 year-old cruise ship youth counselor employed by Celebrity Cruises, was arrested in December of 2023 for sexually abusing a 6-year-old girl in the youth center of the Celebrity Silhouette during a cruise to the Caribbean. Castor subsequently waived his Miranda rights and voluntarily told FBI investigators that he molested not only the girl but at least three other minor children while they were visiting the center on the cruise ship since August.
Some of the most notorious sexual crimes involving minors involved two Princess Cruises ship employees, including an assistant cruise director, who were sentenced last year to combined terms of over 45 years in federal prison for child pornography and sexual assault.
Daniel Scott Crow, employed by Princess Cruises as an assistant cruise director, was sentenced late last year by Southern District of Florida Judge Jose Martinez to thirty (30) years in prison for enticing an underage child to engage in sex with him and take part in the production of child pornography. Crow was thirty-five (35) years of age when he met the sixteen (16) year old child during a cruise in July 2019 on an unidentified Princess Cruises ship. A press release by the Department of Justice (DOJ) sets forth the basic facts of the disturbing sexual crimes committed by Crowe.
A second Princess crew member, Angelo Victor Fernandes, from India, age 34, worked on the same Princess cruise ship as Crow. Fernandes was friends with Crow and the two men discussed “obtaining children for sex.” Fernandes admitted to federal agents when he was arrested that he was sexually attracted to Crow and sent him sexually explicit videos and child pornography in exchange for videos of Crow masturbating. The two crew members discussed travelling to sexually abuse children as young as five years of age. Judge Aileen Cannon, of the federal district court in Fort Pierce, Florida, sentenced Fernandes last week to 188 months (over 15 and1/2 years) in prison. A press release by the DOJ sets forth the basic facts of the crimes committed by Fernandes.
We have repeatedly reported that approximately one-third of sexual crimes on cruise ships involve minors. It’s dangerous to leave your children alone on cruise ships or trust ship employees with your kids. There is no sexual predator database outside of the U.S. where these particular crew members were hired. We have handled over one-hundred and twenty-five sexual assault cases against passengers on cruise ships over the past twenty years. Approximately over-third of the cases involved minors.
The prime location we have concluded for a crew member to assault young children is in the guest cabin. Cabin attendants can use their master key cards to enter cabins if and when parents leave their kids, thinking it’s safe to go to a club or bar at night.
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Image credit: Disney Dream – ajmexico CC BY 2.0 commons / wikimedia; TIRSO ANTHONY NERI – tricountybests.