As thousands of gay men gathered at PortMiami in Florida on Sunday to board what organizers billed as the “world’s biggest gay festival at sea,” law enforcement officers arrested nine passengers after narcotics were allegedly discovered in their luggage.
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The arrests happened ahead of the departure of Royal Caribbean's Symphony of the Seas. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers were screening bags at Terminal A with trained detection dogs when several suitcases were flagged, authorities said. Miami TV station WPLG first reported on five of the arrests. The Advocate reviewed arrest affidavits and court records showing the cases were referred to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, whose Narcotics Interdiction Squad assisted CBP in the operation.
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In a statement, Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office Detective Joseph R. Peguero Rivera told The Advocate that deputies were called in around 6 p.m. Sunday to assist CBP with a drug-enforcement operation at PortMiami.
“MDSO arrested a total of nine individuals on various drug-related charges,” he said, involving MDMA, LSD, and cocaine. The arrest reports also reference ketamine, methamphetamine, and GHB precursor GBL, among the substances seized.
Court records show those charged are Joshua S. Eddy, 41, of West Hollywood, California; Brad R. Kloha, 41, of Nashville, Tennessee; Adam Jones, 49, of Atlanta, Georgia; Hoi Le, 51, of San Francisco; Joshua Lee Jenkins, 39, of Tacoma, Washington; Ryan D. Medrano, 27, of Phoenix, Arizona; Tamar J. Wilson, 37, of Chicago; Daisuke Nakanoh, 40, of Chicago; and Ricardo Gabriel Junquera, 39, of Miami.
According to the arrest affidavits, Eddy faces a trafficking charge tied to MDMA, along with multiple felony possession counts after officers said his luggage contained MDMA as well as methamphetamine, ketamine, and GBL, a chemical associated with the club drug GHB that can render users unconscious and suppress breathing. Eddy has a sizable social media presence with hundreds of thousands of followers and is also an adult content producer on OnlyFans. In a LinkedIn profile reviewed by The Advocate, he describes himself as a Global Client Lead at Meta.
Kloha is charged with trafficking in MDMA and felony possession after officers said his bag contained MDMA and ketamine. Jones and Le each face felony drug charges tied to substances authorities said were found during screening. Jenkins is charged with felony possession after his luggage was flagged, and field testing indicated the presence of a controlled substance. Medrano, Wilson, Nakanoh, and Junquera are each charged with felony drug offenses connected to the same PortMiami operation.
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In each case, the reports describe a similar sequence: luggage selected for inspection in the outbound screening area, passengers presented to CBP, field tests indicating the presence of controlled substances, and arrests followed by booking into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.
Miami defense attorney Jordan Lewin, who is representing Jones, said his client denies the allegations. “The defense is confident their investigation will demonstrate that he was falsely accused and will be able to show that none of the impounded items belonged to him,” Lewin told The Advocate in an interview.
The Symphony of the Seas, a ship that can carry more than 5,000 passengers, was preparing to depart on a weeklong Caribbean itinerary chartered by Atlantis Events, the West Hollywood-based company that has built a lucrative business around large-scale LGBTQ+ party cruises — voyages that function as both vacation and a floating nightlife festival.
For many LGBTQ+ travelers, those cruises are marketed as rare spaces of freedom and visibility. But in recent years, they have also become sites of grief and unanswered questions.
Atlantis-chartered cruises have seen a number of “code alpha” medical emergencies tied to drug overdoses in recent years, according to sources familiar with the incidents, including cases that raised questions about onboard safety. In January 2024, Jonathan Mindrum, a 36-year-old man from Chicago, died aboard Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas during an Atlantis-chartered sailing after a life-threatening medical emergency was announced over the ship’s public address system in the early morning hours. Royal Caribbean and Atlantis Events said at the time that the death was “unexpected and not suspicious,” but Mindrum’s family later said they were left with few details about what had happened.
That death followed other fatalities tied to Atlantis-chartered voyages. In 2022, another passenger died during an Atlantis Events cruise. And in 2020, a 46-year-old Florida man died after falling overboard during an Atlantis-chartered sailing.
The PortMiami arrests renewed questions about how party-oriented cruises balance celebration with safety and about the role drugs can play in medical emergencies at sea, where the nearest hospital may be days away.
The Advocate contacted Rich Campbell, the CEO of Atlantis Events, as well as company spokespeople, seeking comment on the arrests and questions about passenger safety and security practices, but neither Campbell nor the company responded. Requests for comment to Royal Caribbean Cruises and to Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin went unanswered.
Responding to the arrests, Randle Roper, the founder and chief experience officer of VACAYA, an LGBTQ+ travel company that charters similar cruises, told The Advocate that his company approaches travel differently. Roper previously worked at Atlantis as an executive producer.
“We take a zero-tolerance approach to illegal substances, not from judgment, but from lived experience and concern for our community’s safety and future," Roper said. "Life at sea carries real legal and medical risks, and no vacation is worth that cost."
Cruise ships lack fully equipped hospitals, evacuations can be slow or impossible, and substances that may seem minor on land can carry serious legal consequences once a vessel enters foreign ports, Roper said.
The Symphony of the Seas is scheduled to return to Miami on Sunday.
