The Trump Administration’s justification for striking a boat in the Caribbean in early September, killing all 11 people on board, was that it was carrying a cargo of potentially deadly drugs that was headed to the United States.
But that justification appears to have been undermined by a briefing from the commander of that operation before lawmakers on Thursday, who reportedly said the boat in question was heading to the coast of Suriname, where it was planning to transfer its drugs to a larger vessel.
The revelation contradicts the Administration's claims that the boat was on its way to the United States and means that the U.S. was likely not even the final destination for its alleged shipment. The U.S. government’s own intelligence has said previously that the majority of drug trafficking routes that go via Suriname head on to Europe.
Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley, the head of U.S. Special Operations Command and commander of the operation, disclosed the boat’s destination during a briefing for a select group of lawmakers on Thursday, which included the leaders of the Armed Services and Intelligence committees in the House and Senate, CNN reported.
Bradley argued that the drug shipment allegedly on board the boat could have ultimately made its way to the United States, according to CNN. The news outlet cited two sources familiar with his remarks to lawmakers.
The September 2 strike has come under intense scrutiny after it emerged that Bradley, a Navy SEAL officer with decades of experience who now leads U.S. Special Operations Command, ordered a second attack after two of the 11 people on the boat survived the first.
Democratic and Republican lawmakers emerged from Bradley's briefing with diametrically opposing views of what they had seen, with Democrats expressing deep concern and Republicans appearing satisfied that Bradley had acted lawfully.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has also been under fire following a Washington Post report that cited two people familiar with the operation who claimed he ordered that the strike leave no survivors, a potential war crime.
TIME has reached out to the Defense Department for comment.
Hegseth’s story has shifted in the weeks since the strike. He initially said he had watched the strike live, but later, when news of the second strike emerged, he revealed that he had left the room after the initial launch and did not see the second.
Hegseth’s primary justification for all the strikes, including the September 2 operation, has been that the alleged trafficking boats were heading to the United States with deadly drugs that pose a threat to Americans.
The day after the strike, Hegseth said in an interview on Fox & Friends. “We knew exactly who was in that boat. We knew exactly what they were doing, and we knew exactly who they represented — and that was Tren de Aragua, a narco-terrorist organization designated by the United States, trying to poison our country with illicit drugs,” he said.
“We’ve only just begun striking narco-boats and putting narco-terrorists at the bottom of the ocean because they’ve been poisoning the American people,” Hegseth told reporters earlier this week, threatening to ramp up a campaign that has drawn criticism from experts and both sides of the aisle.
President Donald Trump has claimed the same. On the day of the strike, he said with certainty in the Truth Social post announcing the attack that the traffickers, who he said were “under the control” of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, were “heading to the United States.”
The U.S. government’s own intelligence has shown that in recent years that drug trafficking routes via Suriname are primarily headed towards Europe, and that much of the U.S. drug trade has shifted towards the Pacific.
“Suriname is a transit country for South American cocaine, the majority of which is likely destined for Europe,” the US State Department’s 2025 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report said on the South American nation’s drug trade.
The strikes have killed more than 87 people in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific.
Bradley’s classified briefing to lawmakers on Thursday did little to quell outrage among Democrats over the September strike.
Senate Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Jack Reed, a Democrat of Rhode Island, said in a statement to TIME that he was “deeply disturbed” by what he saw at the briefing.
Democratic Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, also raised serious concerns. “What I saw in that room was one of the most troubling things I’ve seen in my time in public service,” he told reporters.
“You have two individuals in clear distress, without any means of locomotion, with a destroyed vessel, [who] were killed by the United States,” the Connecticut congressman said, though he acknowledged that “there’s a whole set of contextual items” that Bradley explained. “Yes, they were carrying drugs. They were not in the position to continue their mission in any way,” Himes added.
According to the Post report, Bradley ordered a follow-up strike that killed two survivors of the first attack in an attempt to fulfill Hegseth’s directive to leave no survivors. Hegseth said on Fox News earlier this week that he did not see the second strike, having learned a “couple of hours later” that Bradly had ordered it, “which he had the complete authority to do.” He has defended the strikes, which he says were intended to be lethal.
Hegseth has repeatedly denied ordering that everyone on board the boat be killed, calling the story “fake news” and “fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting” on social media on Nov. 28.
He again denied giving the order on Saturday during an appearance at the Reagan National Defense Forum, saying "of course not" in response to the question.
Legal experts have pointed to international war laws and domestic laws to argue that if the directive did occur, it could amount to “murder” and a “war crime” for which Hegseth could be held legally culpable, as it is illegal to kill shipwrecked people who are technically out of combat.
The allegations have sparked investigations in both houses of Congress—a rare show of bipartisan pushback against the Trump Administration, as the Senate Armed Services Committee has vowed “vigorous oversight” to determine what occurred.
Reporting from CNN and the New York Times of Bradley’s testimony also alleges that after the first strike on the boat, survivors climbed atop the overturned boat and waved something in the air above their heads. Interpretation by lawmakers who saw the video was split, as military officials argued the move was to beckon other alleged drug traffickers in a plane or boat to come get them, while some believed it could have been an attempt to surrender.
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