Feds find child porn on phones of 3 men who arrived on South Florida cruises: police
When three men arrived on cruise ships in South Florida this week, Border Protection agents made concerning discoveries on their phones. The men, which included two cruise ship crew members, had multiple saved videos of child sex abuse, according to agents.
The first finding came Saturday after U.S. Customs and Border Protection inspected the belongings of Dakota Anthony Ferguson, 22, a federal criminal complaint read.
Ferguson had just arrived at Port Everglades from Mexico on the Disney Magic cruise ship, though it’s unclear whether he was a passenger or crew member. Border Protection agents stopped Ferguson, searched him and found his iPhone 13 Pro Max.
Proceeding to sift through the phone, agents uncovered numerous child pornography video — the majority of which filmed “prepubescent” girls being raped, the complaint read.
Ferguson was arrested and charged with transportation of child pornography and four counts of possession of child pornography. As of Wednesday night, he still remained in the Broward Jail, records show.
After his arrest, agents said Ferguson admitted to them that he had been watching child porn for the last three years on Telegram and X involving children aged from 2 to 17 years old. He even shared child porn with others but denied creating them, the complaint read.
In Ohio, Ferguson has a similar active criminal case in which he was charged with two counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor in 2021, court records reveal. He’s since pleaded not guilty.
Cruise ship workers arrested minutes apart
On Monday morning, Border Protection agents searched the cabin of Imadewisma Dana, a 28-year-old Indonesian man, an arrest report read. He’s a crew worker for an undisclosed cruise ship.
An agent discovered five videos of child sex abuse on his phones, which showed boys and girls between about 6 to 14 years old being raped.
Dana was arrested and charged with five counts of possessing images of sexual performance by a child and is being held for immigration. As of Wednesday, he still remained in the Miami-Dade County jail.
After he was arrested, agents said he told them he was not aware of child porn and he didn’t have a “special preference” for children.
About 10 minutes after Dana’s room search, agents also conducted a routine cabin inspection of Iputuagus Karnawan’s room, an arrest report read. Karnawan is also a cruise line worker, though the company is unclear nor did they indicate whether he had any connection to Dana.
Agents also searched his phone, where they discovered that Karnawan had four videos of child porn. The footage depicted girls from the age of about 12 to 15 being raped.
The 28-year-old was arrested and charged with four counts of possessing images of sexual performance by a child and is being held for immigration. As of late Wednesday, he still remained in the Miami-Dade County jail.
