Disney cruise workers busted in child porn sting, hauled off ships for deportation

Disney cruise workers busted in child porn sting, hauled off ships for deportation

Disney Cruise Line workers were among 28 arrested on ships in San Diego

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Fox News senior foreign affairs correspondent Greg Palkot reports on World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus announcing no new symptomatic cases on Hantavirus-hit cruise ship.

More than two dozen cruise ship employees, including Disney cruise workers, were arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in a child exploitation ring bust at a port in San Diego.

In all, 28 people from three different countries — 26 from the Philippines, one from Indonesia and another from Portugal — were interviewed, and 27 were found to have taken part in the "receipt, possession, transportation, distribution, or viewing of [child sexual exploitation material] or child pornography," according to CBP.

It is unclear how many of those people worked for Disney Cruise Line.

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A Disney Cruise Line docked in Falmouth, Jamaica on May 2, 2018. (iStock)

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Disney said: "We have a zero-tolerance policy for this type of behavior and fully cooperated with law enforcement. While the majority of these individuals were not from our cruise line, those who were are no longer with the company."

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CBP agents boarded a total of eight cruise ships in the Port of San Diego between April 23 and April 27 in search of the suspects.

Disney Cruise Line's Disney Dream heads to sea from Port Canaveral in Florida. (iStock)

CBP said the suspects' visas have been revoked and they are scheduled for deportation.

Dharmi Mehta told the California Post that she was a passenger on one of the ships and that it was "really unsettling" seeing the arrests, including one worker who was her server during the five-day trip.

"He was full in uniform, which was in a blazer, tie. Some of the other employees were still in their chef’s uniforms with their name tags on it," Mehta said, told the outlet.

The Disney Dream cruise ship arrives in Portland Port in Dorset, on Sept. 13, 2024 in Portland, United Kingdom. (Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images)

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The Port of San Diego told Fox News Digital that it was not involved in the law enforcement action, and that under California law, local and state authorities do not cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

Peter D'Abrosca is a reporter at Fox News Digital covering crime and campus extremism in higher education.

Follow Peter on X at @pmd_reports. Send story tips to peter.dabrosca@fox.com.

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