Two Disney World employees are among a group of 16 men arrested during a child pornography sting in Florida, with the suspects varying in age from 18 to 64 years old.
The so-called "Operation Guardians of Innocence V” also saw a pharmacist and a registered nurse among those detained over the “possession, promotion, and distribution of child pornography", the Polk County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.
One of the group, Disney World staffer Justin Hazan, 32, who was indicted on 15 counts of possession of child pornography, operated the Millennium Falcon ride at the park.
Another arrested suspect, 36-year-old Arlandres Sims, worked as a food runner at the Animal Kingdom Resort and was charged with 25 counts of possession of the prohibited materials involving underage individuals.
The detained pharmacist, John Aziz, 35, who worked at the Heart of Florida Medical Centre was charged with 72 counts of child pornography possession, while the nurse at Osceola Regional Medical Centre was indicted on five counts of possession of child pornography as well as repeated promotion of the illegal content.
Another of the accused, Landen Ulrich, 18, is alleged to have 200 counts of possession of child pornography, showing victims as young as six-months-old.
As Sheriff Grady Judd put it, every attempt to download materials with extremely vulnerable categories such as children further “victimises” them:
”Every time one of these folks receives, downloads, uploads the victim, a child victim who's being sexually battered or [is] in a provocative position, that child is victimised once again", Judd said.
Many of the victims involved in the sting were under a year old at the time they were "being attacked or sexually attacked in video or in photographs".
"It shows you how deviant [the suspects] are", Judd commented.
