MIAMI — A Royal Caribbean cruise employee has been arrested after allegedly setting up hidden cameras inside passenger bathrooms to spy on young girls.
Arvin Joseph Mirasol, 34, a citizen of the Philippines, was arrested Sunday after a guest aboard the Symphony of the Seas cruise ship found a camera in her bathroom on Feb. 25.
The guest, who was staying in a room with her sister and mother, found the hidden camera when she reached under the sink to grab a roll of toilet paper and found the camera “affixed to the counter underneath the sink,” the probable cause affidavit said.
She reported the camera to customer services, and ship security responded to the room.
Mirasol, an attendant who services the cabin by cleaning, replacing towels and making the bed, was detained on the ship until it docked at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on March 3.
Once the ship docked, Homeland Security Investigations, Customs and Border Protection and the Broward County Sheriff’s Office were alerted and spoke with security and Mirasol.
His electronics, including his phone, an SD card, camera, and USB stick, were investigated that same day. On the USB stick, law enforcement discovered “numerous videos of naked females undressing” as well as child pornography, the criminal complaint affidavit said. One video showed Mirasol himself installing a camera into a guest room’s bathroom.
Mirasol admitted in a post-Miranda interview to taping a video camera in guests’ bathrooms when he worked as an attendant and said he’d pleasure himself after retrieving the camera and viewing its footage, the affidavit said.
“Mirasol revealed that he has been placing these cameras in the bathroom since he started working on Symphony of the Seas around December 2023,” the filing said.
He told officers, “I want to control it, but I can’t,” the affidavit said. He said he’d place the cameras in the rooms where there were females 16 years old and older, despite knowing it is illegal to film underage girls.
Mirasol also admitted that while guests were taking a shower, he’d enter the rooms and hide under the bed while recording them naked with his phone, the affidavit said.
Mirasol has been charged with six state charges of voyeurism in Broward County. In the U.S. District Court of Florida, he was further charged with production and possession of child pornography.
NBC News has reached out to the public defender who was appointed to his case.
Royal Caribbean said in a statement: “We have zero tolerance for this unacceptable behavior. We immediately reported this to law enforcement and terminated the crew member, and we will continue to fully cooperate with authorities.”
By MARLENE LENTHANG/NBC News
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