CARIBBEAN SEA — Adm. Frank Bradley ordered a second missile strike on survivors in the Caribbean Sea on September 2, 2025, resulting in two additional deaths approximately 45 minutes after an initial strike. The initial strike on a 40-foot boat, departing from San Juan de Unare on Venezuela's Paria Peninsula on the night of September 1, resulted in 11 deaths.
The boat, carrying 11 individuals, was being monitored by military personnel via live video at the Joint Special Operations Command center at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. A U.S. Special Operations aircraft flew low enough to be noticed by the boat's occupants, who then reversed course and headed toward Venezuela. SEAL Team 6 operators fired on the boat, causing an explosion that capsized the vessel.
After the initial attack, two survivors remained on overturned hull debris for approximately 45 minutes. Bradley consulted with Col. Cara Hamaguchi regarding the legality of a follow-up strike on the survivors. Hamaguchi determined a subsequent strike was lawful, and Bradley then ordered the second missile strike, which killed the two survivors. Two additional strikes sank the remaining boat debris.
War Secretary Pete Hegseth signed an order one month prior to the strike directing Special Operations forces to attack suspected drug smuggling boats and kill their crews. Hegseth authorized Bradley to attack the vessel. Bradley stated in briefings that the survivors likely believed the explosion resulted from an engine malfunction. President Donald Trump said the individuals killed were positively identified as Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists and members of a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. Ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee Adam Smith said, "You had two shipwrecked people on the top of the tiny little bit of the boat that was left that was capsized."
The U.S. military has conducted over 60 attacks on suspected drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, resulting in more than 200 deaths. In most previous incidents, between one and four people died per strike.