Cruise Ship Worker Accused of Hiding Cameras in Bathrooms to Spy on Guests

A former employee of the cruise ship company Royal Caribbean was accused of placing cameras in guests’ bathrooms and of hiding in their bedrooms and recording them when they took off their clothes, with some of his reported targets being as young as 10.

Arvin Joseph Mirasol, 34, was arrested on Sunday on federal charges of production and possession of child pornography, according to a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Southern Florida. He is also charged with six counts of voyeurism in State Circuit Court in Broward County, Fla.

Royal Caribbean said that it reported the allegations to law enforcement and fired Mr. Mirasol, and that it would continue to cooperate with the authorities. It was not clear how the actions that led to the charges came to light.

“We have zero tolerance for this unacceptable behavior,” the company said in a statement.

The cruise line alerted federal and state law enforcement agencies on Feb. 26, when the ship was still sailing on international waters. On Sunday, when it docked in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., law enforcement officers searched his devices, including a cellphone, camera, Apple Watch and a flash drive.

A video from the flash drive shows Mr. Mirasol installing the camera and pointing it toward the shower, according the criminal complaint. One of the videos also showed a girl around 10 years old getting into the shower.

Mr. Mirasol worked as a stateroom attendant, cleaning the cabins and restocking the towels, and he admitted to investigators that he had been hiding cameras and secretly filming people since he started working on the ship, Symphony of the Seas, in December 2023, according to the complaint.

He admitted to taping a video camera inside guests’ bathrooms, and later retrieving it, saying he couldn’t control his impulses. Two public defenders who were listed as representing Mr. Mirasol did not immediately return requests for comment on Tuesday.

He would place the camera in rooms that tended to have young girls, around 16 years of age, he told investigators. When asked how he selected his targets, he answered, “If I like who is in that room, I place it,” according to the complaint.

Mr. Mirasol also said that while guests were taking showers he would enter their rooms, hide under the beds and record them with his cellphone while they were changing, the complaint stated.

A similar episode took place on the Royal Caribbean ship, the Harmony of the Seas. In April 2023, F.B.I. officers said a man was accused of hiding a Wi-Fi camera in a top-deck bathroom, pointing its lens toward the toilet. The bathroom was close to one of the ship’s surf simulators and many passengers used it to change into their swimsuits.