CBP arrests 28 in massive child pornography operation across 8 cruise ships, including Disney vessel
OAN Staff Lillian Mann and Katherine Mosack
1:03 PM – Thursday, May 7, 2026
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers boarded eight cruise ships docked in San Diego, California, including a Disney vessel, and arrested 28 individuals as part of a massive child sexual exploitation material investigation (CSEM) last month, officials said.
Federal agents had boarded the ships between April 23rd and 27th, a spokesperson for the agency told TMZ.
“After boarding the vessels and interviewing 26 suspected crew members from the Philippines, one suspected crew member from Portugal, and one from Indonesia, officers confirmed all subjects were involved in either the receipt, possession, transportation, distribution, or viewing of CSEM or child pornography,” a CBP spokesperson told the California Post.
The official added that the offenders’ visas were then canceled and that they were being removed from the United States.
Disney did not disclose how many of those apprehended were its employees, though the media giant claimed that most of the arrests did not involve staffers from its ship.
“We have a zero-tolerance policy for this type of behavior and fully cooperated with law enforcement,” a Disney spokesperson told the New York Post. “While the majority of these individuals were not from our cruise line, those who were are no longer with the company.”
The Disney cruise had just returned from a five-day voyage that included stops at Catalina Island and Ensenada in Baja California, Mexico.
Video footage circulated online this week of immigration enforcement officers arresting Disney employees at the San Diego International Airport immediately after its cruise liner, the Disney Magic, docked, sparking outrage from anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activists.
One vacationer, Dharmi Mehta, took a video of a man she said was her server as he was detained.
“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 during a press conference on Tuesday.
Before the reason for the arrests was disclosed, several immigration rights groups raised objections over the arrests. Even after the reason was made public, many advocates argued that those accused should have faced U.S. criminal prosecution rather than deportation.
The Port of San Diego noted that local police were not involved in the arrest.
“The Port of San Diego Harbor Police Department did not have any involvement in the reported enforcement actions on April 23rd or April 25th at the B Street Cruise Terminal,” a spokesperson for the port told NBC San Diego, emphasizing that Harbor Police does not enforce federal immigration law.
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