Cruise crime wave erupts as ships from key port | Travel News

Crimes on cruises departing from U.S. ports have hit a two-year high, in keeping with a current report from the United States Department of Transportation (DOT). In the primary quarter of 2025, 48 critical crimes have been reported on these ships.

These incidents have been reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as mandated by federal law. All incidents occurred on cruises operated by industrial firms, both leaving or returning to the U.S. The knowledge reveals that over half of these crimes have been rapes or sexual assaults.

One of essentially the most extreme instances occurred on the Independence of the Seas cruise, run by Royal Caribbean. In March, two passengers, Jose Prudencio Díaz (36) and Ricardo Daniel Mondragón Leal (37), have been arrested after being accused of sexually abusing a 14-year-old minor.

The incident came about within the ship’s sauna, the place the 2 males allegedly started to masturbate in entrance of the minor and compelled the minor to the touch them. One of them additionally coerced the minor into performing a sexual act, in keeping with courtroom paperwork from the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Department.

Diaz was HIV constructive on the time of the incident, as per tweets from Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Another incident occurred in April on Carnival Cruise Line, which has held onto its status as essentially the most violent cruise line.

A video that surfaced on social media reveals a chaotic scene with passengers embroiled in a vital brawl whereas disembarking on the port of Galveston, Texas. The footage captures a number of people partaking in bodily fight, hanging and shoving one another as they exit the terminal.

Carnival Cruise Line relayed to Fox News Digital that a complete of 24 people concerned within the commotion have been banned from future voyages by being added to their “no boarding list.”

According to a DOT report, of all crimes reported, there have been 23 alleged rape incidents, 10 cases of sexual assault, and seven occurrences of bodily assault. These episodes transpired whereas ships have been cruising, not whereas docked at a port.

Typically, these incidents unfold in open areas like bars, saunas, swimming pools, or nightclubs, and in addition within non-public cabins. Authorities be aware that it is often passengers who’re each victims and assailants, although crew members can generally be implicated as nicely.

Robert McDonald, an ex-Secret Service agent, knowledgeable Fox News Digital that cruises are infamous hotspots for prison exercise due to the dense population in confined areas, elevated alcohol consumption, and the final relaxed state of holidaying passengers.

However, McDonald additionally identified that sure cruise strains might delay reporting such incidents, fearing injury to their status.

He commented: “This negative information puts a dark cloud over the industry.”