How to Get Arrested at Boca Bash: The Police Reports Are In

Police investigating a vessel at the 2025 Boca Bash event. (Photo: Boca Daily News)

Days after the raucous waterborne party ended, the dust settled on this year’s Boca Bash – and the consensus seems to indicate that this year’s event wasn’t without incident, but significantly calmer than last year’s headline-making affair.

A Boca Daily News analysis of police reports after the event showed four arrests for Boating Under the Influence (BUI), and a few voyages having been terminated by authorities after they observed vessels significantly overloaded. There were some minor scuffles, and dings and dents to boats, but far fewer arrests than the staggering 16 that occurred last year and 18 in 2023. Court records showed four arrests for BUI this year, and the social media postmortem of Boca Bash largely highlighted the especially low tide of the event rather than its perceived lowbrow behavior – illustrated last year by shocking video of teens dumping trash into Boca Inlet.

Still, the instances of alleged drunken boating provide a cautionary tale against imbibing while manning the helm. The four arrests were divided between Boca Raton Police Department marine unit and FWC law enforcement, both of which conducted heavy patrols of Lake Boca, where the event is held, and included marked police vessels and a small army of officers manning jet-skis to weave their way through the crowd and observe any dangerous behavior that arose. Here is how each BUI case originated and how the investigation led to an arrest.

It Began With The Numbers

The arrest of Marcos Milao Silva, 36, of Tampa, began with a minor observation by an FWC officer: improper spacing of the registration numbers on the side of a personal watercraft (PWC). According to charging documents, it is alleged that the PWC’s operator, later identified as Milao Silva, did not stop when the officer activated emergency lights and ignored a visual command to stop the vessel even after he looked back.

Eventually, the PWC came to a stop and tied up next to the FWC boat. Milao Silva told officers he did not have his registration or driver’s license with him, but still provided his name, which was confirmed his identity through a state law enforcement database. During their interaction, the officer said he observed an improperly buttoned life jacket and told the operator to put it on properly, but he “struggled to perform basic tasks,” misspelled his name and street address, and was “mumbling and slurring” his words.

Milao Silva agreed to perform field sobriety tests after telling the officers he had not drank, the report said, some of which he passed and some of which indicated impairment. The report said the operator, when later questioned by the officer, admitted to having one beer at 8 a.m. Ultimately, Milao Silva is alleged to have refused a breath test and was arrested after being read the state’s implied consent law.

The case is pending.

Boca Bash 2025, Boca Raton, Fla, April 28, 2025. (Photo: Boca Daily News)

Life Jacket Violation Leads to Arrest

Boca Raton’s marine unit arrested Vincent Sessa, 24, of Plantation, after an initial stop of his Yamaha PWC when an officer noticed the vessel’s passenger not wearing a life jacket. A police report alleges the officer noticed Sessa’s eyes were “glassy and bloodshot” and he was slurring his speech. The officer also writes in the report that he smelled a strong odor of alcohol emanating from the operator’s breath.

The report states that the arresting officer said Sessa “appeared lost and confused” after he asked for a copy of the PWC’s registration. After being asked if he had anything to drink, Sessa allegedly admitted to drinking “several beers.” Police then performed numerous field sobriety tests, after which the investigation moved to the city’s boat ramp at Silver Palm Park, where more were performed after 15 minutes of waiting on dry land.

Sessa, the report said, volunteered to submit to a breath test, however he did not provide enough air for the device to record an accurate reading. A second test failed because the suspect’s saliva filled the mouthpiece, resulting in a “purge error.” Eventually, despite another “volume not met” error, an additional test recorded a .192 – more than double the state’s .08 legal limit. Police accused Sessa of “playing games” during yet another round breath tests by not providing enough air for the machine to produce a recording. Two of these breath tests resulted in .172 and .159 readings, though they each contained errors. Sessa was charged with BUI and a refusal to provide a breath sample.

He was then transported to the Palm Beach County Jail. The case is pending.

Swift Current Leads to Swift Problems

A full tide change during this year’s Boca Bash exposed a major issue that often occurs at large boat gatherings: improper anchoring. Boca Daily News reporters, who were at the event on the water, observed numerous incidents in which vessels were either poorly anchored, or so many vessels were tied and rafted up together that a single anchor from the primary vessel was not enough to hold all of the vessels in place. With a tide rushing in, the notably strong current – pushing northward from Boca Inlet – caused numerous groups of boats and PWCs to drag their anchors, eventually floating into other vessels that were properly anchored and, as a result, were not moving with the current.

One such incident began with a startling call to police: an “old white boat” with three engines had run over three people swimming in the water. Fortunately, when a Boca Raton Police officer arrived on the east side of Lake Boca, it was determined that a 2019 29-foot Luhrs had backed into a large inflatable platform, but had not struck anyone. But by this time, a “disturbance” was developing and a large number of people were gathered around the scene, the report said.

While officers were investigating, they observed the captain of the Luhrs, later identified as Delvis Manso, 43, of Loxahatchee, using the helm and throttles to control the boat, allegedly with “bloodshot eyes.” After the boat was finally freed from the inflatable swim platform, officers told Manso to pull to the side, out of the water of other boats, for further investigation.

Manso, the report said, told officers that the boat impacted the inflatable because someone had “cut his anchor line,” though the officer later stated in the report that the boat’s anchor could be seen stowed all the way up to the bow of the vessel, with no apparent signs that it had been cut off the boat. At this point, the officers re-alleged that the captain’s eyes were bloodshot, and they could now detect a strong odor of alcohol emanating from his breath.

After the captain admitted to drinking one Corona and one Heineken beer, he submitted to field sobriety tests, the report said. Some of the field sobriety tests resulted in failure, it was alleged, and the report stated Manso refused to provide a breath sample. He was arrested for BUI and taken to the Palm Beach County Jail. The case is pending.

Boca Bash 2025, Boca Raton, Fla, April 28, 2025. (Photo: Boca Daily News)

A Sharp Turn, Truck Talk, and Bodily Fluids

The fourth arrest brought together another PWC operator and an FWC officer. After the PWC operator, later identified as Christopher Miller, 28, of Miami, made an “abrupt directional change just ahead of my vessel and without signaling or leaving adequate distance for other vessels to anticipate such a maneuver,” the officer wrote, a vessel stop was conducted.

According to the report, Miller is alleged to have exhibited glassy and bloodshot eyes, slurred speech, and “at times appeared to be incoherent.” Miller allegedly told police he was not operating the PWC despite being the only person on board, and later said he was not operating a Dodge truck – even though neither he nor the officer ever made mention of a truck.

The investigation, from that point, was short-lived. Police said Miller refused both the field sobriety test as well as the breath test, with the report further stating that he “urinated himself as well as vomited.”

Miller was charged with BUI and transported to the Palm Beach County Jail.