Two crew members, employed by unidentified cruise lines, are the latest cruise ship employees arrested for possession of child sexual abuse materials after they were apprehended yesterday at PortMiami with child pornography on their phones, according to local Miami NBC News Station 6.
Iputuagus Karnawan (below – bottom) and Imadewisma Dana (below – top), both age 28, were arrested at PortMiami on Monday.
Both were accused of possessing numerous images “showing sexual performance by a child.”
According to NBC-6, the arrest reports indicate that a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer conducted “routine cabin searches” and located videos of “child abuse material on their cellphones.” The two men were then arrested by Miami-Dade Police. (Florida has a statute authorizing local police departments to investigate and state prosecutors to prosecute crimes on cruise ships which depart and return to this state.)
NBC-6 reported that the state court criminal judge set the bond for both men at $2,500 on each count, resulting in a total bond amount of $12,500 for Dana and $10,000 for Karnawan.
But Dana and Karnawan, who are reportedly both from Indonesia, were being kept behind bars on an immigration hold.
In addition to these two crew members, eight other cruise ship employees have been arrested for possessing child sexual abuse materials since February: Iwayan Pasek Brahmantara, age 32 (Royal Caribbean assistant waiter on the Wonder of the Seas), Komang Parianta, age 33, (Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas), Tirso Anthony Neri, age 44 (Disney Dream), Alvin Gonzalez, age 49 (Disney Dream), Amiel Trazo, age 28 (Disney Dream), Jamaal Wade, age 28 (employed by RWS Global as a dancer / performer on a Holland America Line cruise ship), and Dennis Ofrancia De Leon, age 44 (Celebrity Reflection). Some of these crew members possessed child pornography of children as young as two to five years of age.
Top left to bottom right: Zin Naing Htun (Royal Caribbean), Iwayan Pasek Brahmantara (Royal Caribbean), Amiel Trazo (Disney), Anthony Gonzalez (Disney), Dennis Ofrancia De Leon (Celebrity), Komang Parianta (Royal Caribbean), Tirso Anthony Neri (Disney), and Jamaal Wade (RWS Global on a HAL ship).
It seems rather far-fetched to believe that these men were subject to “routine” cabin searches which turned up child pornography on their personal phones. My thought is that some of them probably were sharing child abuse images. This probably led to law enforcement gathering their emails or social media pages and then identifying additional perverts on ships which called on U.S. ports here in Miami or Fort Lauderdale.
The question that arises is which cruise ships did these men work on? So far, in the last five months, the arrested crew members worked on cruise ships owned by Royal Caribbean (4), Disney (3), and Carnival Corporation (HAL) (1).
Have a comment or question? Please leave one below or join the discussion on our Facebook page.
June 5, 2024 Update:
June 6, 2024 Update:
Image credit: Iputuagus Karnawan and Imadewisma Dana – Miami Dade County Mugshot Zone and Miami Dade Correction via NBC-6.