Upon the Disney Dream's arrival at Port Everglades on January 17, federal agents searched ship worker Amiel Joseph Trazo's devices and found material depicting child sexual abuse, according to court documents. Investigators zeroed in on the 28-year-old Filipino citizen after receiving nine tips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children advising he was in possession of child pornography.
Trazo was arrested and booked into the Paul Rein Detention Facility in Pompano Beach, where he remains jailed with an immigration hold pending. His case came to light when a February 19 federal charging document filed against him was obtained by New Times.
He allegedly belonged to a group chat where he obtained images of underage children and also received links via Facebook messenger to files of pornography involving children younger than 10 years old.
"[Trazo] stated that he shared these images on Facebook messenger with his friends and a girlfriend in order to 'tease' them," a Broward County criminal affidavit states. "The defendant also admitted that he 'needs help, knows it's wrong, and it is bad for his religion.'"
Trazo is facing charges in federal and state court. The federal charging document (attached below) says agents located several videos and photos on Trazo's iPhone 15 Pro Max depicting graphic scenes with children between the approximate ages of 6 and 14.
In a statement to New Times, Disney Cruise Line said Trazo's employment has been terminated.
Amiel Joseph Trazo was booked into a Broward County jail in January 2024 on child porn charges.
Broward Sheriff's Office photo
Trazo was one of two Disney Cruise Line workers arrested on child porn charges in targeted searches at Port Everglades last month.
In late January, Disney Cruise employee Alvin Gonzales was arrested after agents searched him at Port Everglades and allegedly found child porn on his Sandisk Micro SD memory card. Similar to Trazo's case, the search followed up on tips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Gonzales, who is 49 years old, is also from the Philippines.
While news reports about Gonzales' arrest did not identify the ship he worked on, Disney Dream and Disney Magic are currently listed as the only Disney ships with active voyages departing from Fort Lauderdale.
It's unclear what job positions Trazo and Gonzales held on the cruises.
Their arrests put Disney Cruise Line under scrutiny at a time when allegations of cruise ship workers' sexual misconduct involving children have been in national focus.
In December, a camp counselor working on Celebrity Cruises' Celebrity Silhouette admitted to sexually abusing multiple children in the ship's Camp at Sea program, according to the FBI. The bureau says the man confessed shortly after a 6-year-old victim and her parents reported him in November for groping her in the ship's youth center.
Last June, a Royal Caribbean musical director was reportedly sentenced to 18 months in prison on child porn charges in Australia.
