NIne months into<\/span> the Trump administration\u2019s deadly campaign against so-called drug boats, there is a pattern to the strikes. And a glaring anomaly.<\/p>\n The U.S. military has conducted more than 60 attacks, resulting in over 200 extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. In almost all the strikes, between one and four people lost their lives. In only one strike did the death toll of a single boat reach double digits: the first attack on September 2, 2025.<\/p>\n Since then, experts, lawmakers, and even military officials behind the scenes have been asking a simple but haunting question: Why was that boat packed with 11 people?<\/p>\n \u201cWhy would 11 people be on board a boat carrying drugs?\u201d said a government source who attended a classified briefing where the large crew on the first boat attacked was discussed. \u201cIt\u2019s a high risk for the cartels. That always stood out.\u201d<\/p>\n One top military officer provided a plausible explanation, behind closed doors on Capitol Hill, The Intercept has learned. His admission raises even more questions about a strike that a high-ranking Pentagon official called a criminal attack on civilians<\/a> and resulted in a firestorm in Congress<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n In the briefing, the high-ranking officer on the Pentagon\u2019s Joint Staff stated that some of the people killed by the U.S. military may have been the victims of human trafficking.<\/p>\n A 40-foot go-fast<\/span> boat with four 200-horsepower engines sped off from San Juan de Unare<\/a> on Venezuela\u2019s Paria Peninsula deep in the night of September 1. It was \u201cprobably headed to Trinidad or some other country in the Caribbean,\u201d Secretary of State Marco Rubio would later say<\/a>.<\/p>\n As the pe\u00f1ero<\/em> cut through the warm waters of the Caribbean Sea, a secret U.S. Special Operations plane flew high above<\/a>. Its transponder was \u201csquawking\u201d its military identity by radio. But to the 11 people on the boat below, the plane \u2014 a secret Special Operations aircraft with a non-military appearance \u2014 would have looked like a civilian aircraft. Its munitions were hidden inside the fuselage, rather than affixed visibly under its wings.<\/p>\n A month earlier, War Secretary Pete Hegseth signed an execute order directing Special Operations forces to attack suspected drug smuggling boats and kill their crews, according to three government officials who spoke with The Intercept. Hegseth gave the go-ahead order to attack the boat to Adm. Frank Bradley \u2014 then the head of the secretive Joint Special Operations Command, or JSOC, who presided over the\u00a0September 2 mission<\/a> \u2014 according to four sources.<\/p>\n Now, Hegseth and numerous military officers were watching live video<\/a> of the boat<\/a> as it plowed through the Caribbean waters. The Americans gathered at the JSOC joint operations center at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, could see the men in the boat clearly, according to three government officials briefed on the matter.<\/p>\n The secret plane dove low enough that those on the boat noticed it, said three government officials familiar with the operation. It apparently unnerved the men aboard so much that they turned the boat around<\/a> and headed back toward Venezuela. \u00a0<\/p>\n Bradley \u2014 now the four-star chief of Special Operations Command \u2014 consulted with Col. Cara Hamaguchi<\/a>, JSOC\u2019s staff judge advocate, before ordering SEAL Team 6 operators to attack the packed speedboat, according to government sources. In an instant, the vessel exploded<\/a> and was engulfed in\u00a0fire and shrouded in smoke<\/a>. Two survivors pulled themselves onto a fragment of the overturned hull as the Americans watched from above.<\/p>\n According to officials, Bradley explained in briefings that because the September 2 attack was the initial strike of the campaign and was conducted by the secret plane, the survivors would have had no idea they were attacked by the aircraft. They probably believed the explosion was caused by a catastrophic engine malfunction, Bradley said in the briefing.<\/p>\n The two men were shipwrecked, helpless, or clearly in distress, six people who saw video of the attack said. Bradley watched as the injured men clung\u00a0to what remained of the boat. \u201cYou had two shipwrecked people on the top of the tiny little bit of the boat that was left that was capsized,\u201d Rep. Adam Smith<\/a>, D-Wash., the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, said on CNN after viewing video of the attack.<\/p>\n Three sources familiar with briefings by Bradley provided to members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence as well as the Senate and House Armed Services committees confirmed that the men bobbed along, drifting with the current, for roughly\u00a045 minutes. \u201cThey had at least 35 minutes of clear visual on these guys after the smoke of the first strike cleared. There were no time constraints. There was no pressure. They were in the middle of the ocean and there were no other vessels in the area,\u201d said one of the sources<\/a>.<\/p>\n Bradley again turned to Hamaguchi for guidance on whether he could legally attack the shipwrecked men. Bradley, according to a lawmaker who spoke to The Intercept on the condition of anonymity to discuss a classified briefing, said that the JSOC staff judge advocate deemed a follow-up strike lawful. In the briefing, Bradley said no one in the room voiced objections, according to the lawmaker.<\/p>\n Five people familiar with briefings given by Bradley, including that lawmaker who viewed the video, said that the survivors waved their arms and, logically, must have been waving at the U.S. aircraft flying above them. All believed the men were signaling for help, rescue, or surrender. \u201cObviously, we don\u2019t know what they were saying or thinking,\u201d said one of the sources<\/a>, \u201cbut any reasonable person would assume that they saw the aircraft and were signaling either: don\u2019t shoot or help us.\u201d<\/p>\n Raising one\u2019s hands is a\u00a0universal sign of surrender<\/a>\u00a0for members of armed forces. Under international law, those who surrender \u2014 like those who are\u00a0shipwrecked\u00a0\u2014 are considered\u00a0hors de combat<\/a>, the French term for those no longer in the fight, and may not be attacked. The Pentagon\u2019s Law of War Manual is explicit on this point. \u201cPersons who have been incapacitated by wounds, sickness, or shipwreck are in a helpless state, and it would be dishonorable and inhumane to make them the object of attack,\u201d\u00a0reads\u00a0<\/a>the guide.<\/p>\n Bradley found a workaround. While he declined to comment to The Intercept, a U.S. official familiar with his thinking said he did not perceive their waving to be a \u201ctwo-arm surrender.\u201d About 45 minutes after the men had been thrown into the water, a second missile screamed down\u00a0on Bradley\u2019s order<\/a>, killing them. Two more missiles followed in rapid succession, sinking the remnants of the boat.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In the immediate<\/span> aftermath of the attack, President Donald Trump claimed in a Truth Social<\/a> post that those killed by U.S. forces were \u201cpositively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists,\u201d and members of a \u201cdesignated Foreign Terrorist Organization.\u201d<\/p>\n But from the very beginning, questions swirled among members of Congress and their staffers about the identities of those killed in the attack \u2014 and why there were so many of them.<\/p>\n During a classified briefing on Capitol Hill last fall, Rear Adm. Brian H. Bennett \u2014 a military officer overseeing Special Operations for the Pentagon\u2019s Joint Staff \u2014 was asked if any of the people aboard the boat on September 2 could have been human trafficking victims. \u201cThey could be,\u201d Bennett replied, according to two people present at the briefing.\u00a0<\/p>\n One of the government officials at the briefing explained that questions arose about the few boats targeted by the U.S. with greater-than-expected numbers of people on board; the September 2 strike was singled out due to the especially large number of passengers.<\/p>\n Out of more than 60 strikes since<\/a>, only four involved boats with six or more people aboard, almost all of them in the initial wave of attacks. In October 2025, there were two strikes on boats with six crew members and one with eight people on board. Since then, just one other vessel has had as many as six crew.<\/p>\n Sources and methods of identification were a major topic of the fall briefing, where it became increasingly clear that JSOC did not positively identify everyone on the boats, said the official. \u201cQuestioning then led to trying to understand who these people could be,\u201d that official said.<\/p>\n \u201cI was surprised. But only by the admission.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n The second source at the briefing said they were astonished by Bennett\u2019s candor that victims of human trafficking might have been among those killed. \u201cI was surprised. But only by the admission,\u201d said that official.<\/p>\n Military officials with knowledge of the strikes also discussed the likelihood that some of those on board were being trafficked, were part of a more generalized smuggling operation, or had simply hitched a ride on the vessel, said another government official who was not at that briefing.<\/p>\n In later classified briefings, the Pentagon\u2019s story of who was aboard the vessel changed \u2014 but only marginally, said two government officials. Just one person aboard the go-fast boat on September 2 was a member of a so-called \u201cdesignated terrorist organization,\u201d while 10 were \u201cDTO affiliates,\u201d according to the officials who received those later briefings. Both said that they were under the impression that little more than a conversation with a DTO member might confer affiliate status but said that the military\u2019s explanations were vague.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n For weeks, The Intercept has sought to speak to Bennett, the deputy director for Special Operations on the Joint Staff, about the strikes and his briefings. \u201cRADM Bennett is unavailable for an interview,\u201d Maj. Annabel Monroe, a spokesperson for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told The Intercept. \u201cAs a matter of policy, the Joint Staff does not confirm specific operational details or comment on ongoing or potential future military actions.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked specifically for comment from Bennett and the Joint Staff about the trafficking remark and about how many victims of U.S. boat strikes may have been passengers of any sort, such as trafficking victims, smuggled persons, or paid passengers, Monroe replied: \u201cNothing further to add.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Col. Allie Weiskopf, the director of public affairs at Special Operations Command, said the command was unaware of any allegations of victims of trafficking being killed on September 2 or in subsequent strikes.<\/p>\n \u201cTargeting decisions are based on comprehensive assessments and reviewed through established processes,\u201d a spokesperson for U.S. Southern Command told The Intercept. \u201cEvery narco-terrorist killed \u2026\u00a0was an affiliated member of a Designated Terrorist Organization actively transporting illicit material along known trafficking routes in international waters.\u201d<\/p>\n A\u00a0classified opinion<\/a>\u00a0from the Justice Department\u2019s Office of Legal Counsel \u2014 drawn up by an interagency lawyers working group<\/a> including representatives of the CIA, the State Department, White House counsel, Department of Justice, and the Department of War \u2014 claims that narcotics on supposed drug boats are lawful military targets because they generate revenue for cartels with whom the Trump administration claims they are in a \u201cnon-international armed conflict<\/a>.\u201d Government officials told The Intercept that the memo was not actually signed by Assistant Attorney General T. Elliot Gaiser until days after the September 2 attack. Attached to that secret memo is a similarly\u00a0secret list<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0designated terrorist organizations.<\/p>\n Six current and former government officials briefed on the boat strikes or with experience in counter-narcotics smuggling efforts said that while the vessel struck on September 2 might have had cocaine on board, the sole intent of its voyage was not drug trafficking.<\/p>\n \u201cNo one would smuggle cocaine with 11 people on board their drug-running boat.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n \u201cNo one would smuggle cocaine with 11 people on board their drug-running boat,\u201d said one of the current officials, noting that it was a waste of space, fuel, and created security risks. \u201cIt just is not done. Full stop.\u201d<\/p>\n That official, who talked with The Intercept on the condition of anonymity to speak freely, said that the vessel\u2019s profile more closely matched that of a ship smuggling various types of cargo, including people.\u00a0<\/p>\n Retired Rear Adm. William Baumgartner, the former commander of the Seventh Coast Guard District who oversaw drug-interdiction operations in the Southeast U.S. and the Caribbean Basin, said the number of passengers was an obvious red flag. \u201cI\u2019m disappointed in the quality of planning for this operation,\u201d he told The Intercept. \u201cThere appears to have been a lack of knowledge and expertise in what cocaine smuggling operations look like.\u201d<\/p>\n \n By signing up, I agree to receive emails from The Intercept and to the Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Use<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n The vessel that<\/span> would become the target of the first Trump administration boat strike reportedly left San Juan de Unare in Venezuela on the night of September 1. The 11 men aboard all hailed from that town or nearby G\u00fciria, coastal communities on the Paria peninsula in Venezuela\u2019s Sucre state. It\u2019s an impoverished region where 90 percent<\/a>\u00a0of the population is food insecure; the nongovernmental organization Transparencia\u00a0Venezuela\u00a0identified the area as the country\u2019s prime center of, and transit hub for, human trafficking.<\/p>\n Reporting by Venezuela\u2019s El Nacional<\/a> identified G\u00fciria and San Juan de Unare as having gone from fishing and tourist centers to \u201ccorridors of organized crime,\u201d\u00a0as the economic crisis in the country \u201cdrove many fishermen to replace fishing with smuggling gasoline, migrants, and eventually, drugs.\u201d\u00a0Some boats are known to carry mixed cargos of drugs, weapons, and people<\/a>.<\/p>\n A 2020 report on human trafficking in the Caribbean<\/a> found that Venezuela was \u201cthe greatest supplier of trafficking victims to Trinidad and Tobago\u201d \u2014 and that 43 percent<\/a> of those trafficked from Venezuela to Trinidad and Tobago travel from Sucre.\u00a0It cited a Venezuelan government official who drew specific attention to G\u00fciria due to its proximity to Trinidad and Tobago, stating it was \u201cfrequently used clandestinely for human trafficking.\u201d A 2025 U.S. State Department report<\/a> also highlighted the \u201clong-standing allegation that national guard and coast guard members active in coastal states, such as Sucre and Falcon, facilitated the transport of trafficking victims to Aruba, Cura\u00e7ao, and Trinidad and Tobago.\u201d<\/p>\n A recent investigation by a consortium of journalists<\/a> from Venezuelan outlets noted immigrant transport, people smuggling, and human trafficking\u00a0is integral to the desperately poor population of G\u00fciria and \u201cas ordinary a job as teaching school \u2014 only far better paid.\u201d The journalists wrote:<\/p>\n In this Venezuelan town, people do not call the illicit transportation of drugs and other goods \u2026 to neighboring Caribbean islands or Colombia\u2019s Guajira Peninsula \u201cdrug trafficking\u201d or \u201csmuggling.\u201d They call them vueltas\u2014literally \u201cruns\u201d or \u201cjobs\u201d\u2014borrowing the slang Colombian traffickers use for narcotics shipments, contract killings, or debt collections.<\/p>\n For many people in G\u00fciria, those vueltas are the only path to a decent life.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n According to a 2025 analysis by InSight Crime, a think tank that studies organized criminal activity in the Americas, gangs from Sucre are involved in \u201ccocaine trafficking, human trafficking and smuggling, arms trafficking, and the contraband of animals and minerals.\u201d\u00a0Roughly 30 percent<\/a> of trafficking victims who pass through the region wound up in sexual exploitation networks, Transparencia\u00a0Venezuela\u00a0found.<\/p>\n While trafficking victims are often assumed to be women and girls<\/a> forced into sexual slavery<\/a> \u2014 and many are<\/a> \u2014 men and boys<\/a> represent nearly half of the total number<\/a> of human trafficking victims worldwide. And males<\/a> are frequently mentioned in reports on Venezuela. A 2019 State Department investigation of human trafficking, for example, noted Venezuelan men<\/a> were \u201cincreasingly vulnerable to forced labor in destination countries, including islands of the Dutch Caribbean.\u201d A 2023 State Department report<\/a> noted \u201can increase in male Venezuelan labor trafficking victims\u201d in Trinidad and Tobago. It also details \u201cmigrant smuggling, which serves as traffickers\u2019 primary method of transportation of victims from Venezuela.\u201d<\/p>\n Between 2019 and 2022, 69 percent of Venezuelan immigrants in South America interviewed by the Mixed Migration Center<\/a> reported having hired smuggling services to leave their country.<\/p>\n In 2023, the Cura\u00e7ao Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office also put out a warning<\/a> about child trafficking, particularly from Venezuela: \u201cTrafficked children range in age from 4 to 15 years old and are often transported in boats that also carry drugs and firearms on board.\u201d<\/p>\n An investigation by The Associated Press into the lives of\u00a0nine of those slain in boat strikes<\/a>\u00a0examined the life of one of the men killed in the September 2 attack: Luis \u201cChe\u201d Mart\u00ednez. The AP found that Mart\u00ednez, a 60-year-old local crime boss, made his living smuggling both drugs and people across borders, according to several people who knew him. He had been incarcerated in late 2020 on human trafficking charges after a boat he had operated capsized, killing almost 25 people<\/a> \u2014 including two of his sons and several other relatives<\/a>, according to local reporting at the time. He was eventually released from custody and returned to smuggling people and narcotics, acquaintances told the news outlet.<\/p>\n In the aftermath of Trump\u2019s first boat strike, the size of the death toll immediately surprised those knowledgeable about illicit trade in the region. \u201cWith 11 people on board, there could have been a human smuggling element as well,\u201d InSight Crime observed<\/a> just after the September 2 attack, noting that such go-fast boats generally have a crew of two or three people. \u201cYou do not need 11 people on board a single vessel to smuggle drugs, even for a very big consignment.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI would have expected much more attention to what smuggling operations look like and how to distinguish serious bulk cocaine smuggling boats from inter-island smugglers that might be primarily carrying passengers,\u201d said Baumgartner, the retired Coast Guard rear admiral.<\/p>\n When questioned just a day after the initial strike, at a press conference in Mexico City, Rubio explained the reasons for the attack by first mentioning human trafficking. \u201cThe President of the United States has determined that narcoterrorist organizations pose a threat to the national security of the United States,\u201d he explained<\/a>. \u201cThey are traffickers of people, they are traffickers of deadly drugs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Facing outrage over<\/span> the extrajudicial killings, Bradley has attempted to quiet questions about who the U.S. has targeted.<\/p>\n In recent testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Bradley confirmed<\/a> significant involvement in the boat strikes by the National Security Agency. He has also reportedly told lawmakers<\/a> that U.S. intelligence officials had verified the identities of the 11 people on the boat on September 2 and validated them as legitimate targets. But Special Operations Command would not confirm what Bradley told lawmakers about the identities of the 11 people killed. And numerous government officials who spoke to The Intercept said that claims that intelligence \u201cconfirms who these people are<\/a>\u201d \u2014 as Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson asserted in December \u2014 is a rhetorical sleight of hand, if not an outright lie.<\/p>\n JSOC did not know the names or supposed affiliations of all persons aboard the vessel struck on September 2, numerous government sources told The Intercept.<\/p>\n Two sources specifically mentioned that some passengers were identified only by an obvious nom de guerre. \u201cI don\u2019t think we knew the identities of any of the people in the boat. We might have known one or two. \u2026 But we certainly didn\u2019t know the identities of all 11,\u201d Democratic Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., said in December<\/a>. \u201cI don\u2019t think we have any idea, who precisely, any of the individuals in these boats are.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSrikes [sic] are deliberate, lawful, and precise \u2014 aimed squarely at narco-terrorists and their enablers, not civilians,\u201d a Southern Command spokesperson told The Intercept by email. \u201cSOUTHCOM has full confidence in the operational and intelligence professionals who inform our missions.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"U.S.](\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/AP25338549585033.jpg?fit=5515%2C3677\")
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