Tourism Minister Dr. Ernest Hilaire has commented on reports regarding a cruise ship visitor who arrived in Saint Lucia with a firearm at the weekend.
While explaining that he could not speak to all the details, the Minister told reporters at Monday’s regular pre-Cabinet press briefing that Saint Lucia was not the first port of call.
“He had, from what I was told, the firearm in his sack, his shoulder bag,” Hilaire told reporters.
He said the police dealt with the matter.
” In a sense, it showed that the systems work because he had been to two previous ports and it had not been discovered, but of course, it was discovered in Saint Lucia and the police, in keeping with the protocols, dealt with the matter,” the Castries South MP stated.
“We want to make it very clear that there is no tolerance of persons carrying illegal firearms. In his case, he had a permit for it, but still, what he did was not in accordance with our laws,” Hilaire told reporters.
Reports indicated that the firearm incident involved an American in his thirties.
Well-informed sources told St. Lucia Times that the visitor had an expired permit for his Glock handgun which the police confiscated, but allowed him to leave.
According to the sources, once the man ‘regularises’ the situation, the handgun will be returned to him at his expense.
St. Lucia and other Caribbean Islands must focus and clean up their crime business.
Tourists are concerned why the cruise ship passenger walked with his lawful firearm under the Second Amendment, the rights to bare arms. This tourist may not return to St. Lucia, including myself and my associates.
Tourists and their $$$ are welcome here; their guns are not. A gun permit in another jurisdiction is not valid here – expired or not. This is a crime, and should have been penalized.
So who is footing the bill to bill to send the gun back? What if it is lost (like the one at Bordelais) and is used to butcher us?
Destroy the weapon and make it clear: your guns are not welcome here. Anyone who wants to bring their guns here on vacation is not welcome – we have enough of their guns and their poison here. I hope he does not return. If the roles were reversed you think we would have it so easy?
They tried that same nonsense in the TCI and were dealt with (google tourist tci gun). Stop selling us out in St Lucia. No tourist is worth our worrying about yet another illegal gun here. No excuses. Should have done the right thing: prosecute him and destroy it.
Still, ballistic tests should be carried out on this particular firearm.
Noting there were two previous ports. There should be a rigorous search for indication of use.
CLUF, You don’t have to return but thanks for your visit anyways. St.Lucia’s second amendment does not allow any St.Lucian let alone foreigners to carry any license or unlicensed firearms. Our laws are our laws and need to be respected. America has more gun problems than any other countries. They need to take care of their own and should allow schools kids to carry weapons to schools so they protect themselves from these so call mentally deranged monsters roaming around shooting schools kids. Tourist has no issues in St.Lucia. In America you get shot by mistakenly turning into the wrong driveway.
@CLUFP. This has to be National Slow Month. Do you think that the US laws supersede other countries local laws? Because smoking marijuana is good in California therefore it’s good everywhere around the world. If you go to the US immigration website, it cautions travellers that they must obey local laws. By the way, the correct term is “bear arms.” Just stay where you are, you might drag the local IQ down big time.
He Should have been arrested .Charged ànd onvicted to Prison .Too much Foolishness happening in St.Lucia
The 2nd Amendment does not apply outside of the United States. Other countries have their own laws, rules and regulations that one must follow if they are to visit these countries. If a tourist is concerned about crime in a particular country, then they should look up what measures are in place to prevent/combat crime in that country as well as the laws, rules and regulations and make their decision to travel there based on that. They cannot expect to go to another sovereign nation and expect the laws of their home country to apply.
The 2nd Amendment does not apply to St.Lucia, US citizens have to understand that they have to abide by the laws of other countries.
He should have been arrested and charged according to the laws of St. Lucia and incarcerated. His license does not apply to St.Lucia.
CLUFP what are you learning in university because you have to declare your firearm and store it properly when crossing borders so get out of here with that nonsense, right to bare arms BS. American Gun manufacturers profiting from death.
@CLUFP UNIVERSITY(Calvin Lake University of Financial Planning) – who cares or not if you ever visit. We only welcome law abiding individuals to our country. ST.Lucia has its own laws and anyone who tries to violate these laws should be prosecuted.
Our system did not completely work , this individual should have been arrested and prosecuted. He was actually carrying an illegal firearm in SLU. I hope he learn his lessons and let him know the next time he will be dealt with accordingly.
@CLUFP UNIVERSITY(Calvin Lake University of Financial Planning):
Idiots like you & the arrested (development) individual should be permanently banned from ever stepping foot on St. Lucian soil. You can thank the mendicants in government & the police force for letting off the offender so lightly. American terrorists like him should have been kept in jail for at least 2 years, just for his stupidity & arrogance, which you yourself have put on display, here, for the world to see (don’t you ugly Americans ever quit?)!
And for your edification, St. Lucians did not need a constitution to give its citizens the right to bare arms in public; but we left it up to tourists’ discretion to use the protection of sunscreen, so they could enjoy their stay without the pain & discomfort of sunburn!
If you were just too stupid to spell correctly, and really meant “the right to bear arms,” let me remind you that St. Lucia is an independent country, not a vassal state of the US; even though our government officials are themselves vassals of the US – traitors all! There are laws in place, governing the licensing of firearms, so that St. Lucia does not become a civilian war zone like the US & all the other countries in the world to which the US has exported war & chaos (the only viable export it has left).
You should have kept your mouth shut about crime – after all, the US is in such bad shape, that the only options they have to select a president are the psychopath, Biden & the fraudster, Trump; both of them controlled by the mobsters of Wall St. & the baby-killers of the Military Industrial Complex. Then again, your ignorance might be so profound, that your puny brain might not be able to support that mere tidbit of information.
Please do us a favor & never return!
Pressure from political directorate to the police. No way in hell this man is released without the say so of the corrupt politicians. Selling our soul for a few crumbs from a cruise ship passenger who probably didn’t spend a dime!
I’m sure it was not the first time… Our borders are indeed porous!
@nudge that second paragraph had me LOL!
@CLUFP UNIVERSITY If your university has a course on Common Sense, I suggest you take it.
There must be a lot more to this story than meets the eye. It seems unlikely that he could have left the U.S. on a cruise with a firearm in his possession. If he flew to Miami to join the ship, he would have gone through airport security. At the cruise ship terminal, he had to go through more security where bags and he were subject to X-ray screenings. Then again in any ports of call he visited before St. Lucia–more immigration and security screenings. And cruise ships have their own security screening of all bags when passengers get back on board after visiting on shore for the day. It strikes me as very unlikely that he went through all of the above screenings with an undetected firearm. One has to wonder why he was carrying it on St. Lucia soil. Perhaps he was planning to sell it or he was transporting it there for someone. Would not surprise me.
Also, there is no such thing as Calvin Lake University of Financial Planning in the US.
Regardless of the well-publicized surge of violence in St. Lucia, it makes no sense that a tourist would arm himself in order to visit. If he were that worried about crime and his safety, he would either vacation somewhere safer, or he would just stay on the ship and not get off in Castries. A likelier explanation for this guy’s transporting a firearm onto your island is that he was delivering it for somebody.
@Anonymous (3:48pm). I think that you have something. How was this guy able to go past multiple screenings; let’s assume he took a plane to Miami instead of driving. If he left the weapon on the ship during the two previous stops then it would be impossible to detect. However, why did he choose St. Lucia to bring the weapon on shore? This is the million dollar question. Did he have fears about his safety? Was he trying to sell the weapon locally? There’s something 🐠 fishy about him or the story.
Something stinks worst than shrimp shells about this affair! Why was the first article pulled? Why was this one featuring He-Liar’s ‘muddy’ tale kept instead? Why is the Tourism Minister leading the cover-up of a criminal act?
Why couldn’t he speak to all the details? Why was he so quick to mention that St. Lucia was not the first port of call? First port of call for the American terrorist? The cruise ship? The Glock? Which? What is the significance of the ‘first port of call?
Was the firearm in the shoulder bag loaded?
How exactly did the police deal with the matter?
In what sense did the systems work? What systems are being talked about? Has it been established that he had disembarked at two previous ports with the firearm? At what point (where) in St. Lucia was the firearm discovered in the shoulder bag of the terrorist? What exactly are the protocols used by the police to deal with the matter?
What specific parameters for carrying the firearm were stipulated in the permit presented by the terrorist?
What is the name of the American terrorist who is in his thirties?
Why did the well-informed sources who spoke to St. Lucia Times not forth-coming to the Tourism Minister with the full details of the affair? Was it because the Tourism Minister is being used to bury the story because the police have been told to stand down from garnering facts necessary for moving towards prosecution of the terrorist? Have the police contacted authorities where the gun permit was issued to informed them that the terrorist was carrying the Glock even though the gun permit had expired?
Why was the terrorist allowed to leave? Was there any concern that he was carrying other weapons on board the ship? Was any consideration given to the safety of the other passengers, since the terrorist might have had other weapons hidden on board? Were the passengers informed that one of the other passengers had been apprehended with a gun in St. Lucia?
What exactly is meant by the term ‘regularises’ the situation?
A few questions for Mr Hilaire.
1. Are you certain that the passenger had the firearm in the previous islands he visited?
2. If he had it, are you certain he left the cruise ship with the firearm or he left it onboard?
3. Is it possible that he never left the cruise ship with the gun during his visit to the other island but being the unsafe country that St Lucia is, he chose to disembark with the fire here.
4. After reading your nonsense, about the passenger not being caught in the other islands and taking the above 3 points into consideration also the fact that the passenger was not charged, what is the possibility that this whole thing was choreographed to put St Lucia in a good light as far as secrurity is concerned.
Having said that. If this was not planned we need to applaud the security personnel who got the firearm Again, Why wasn’t the passenger arrested?
Cuffy who were you bringing it for ??? Who was your contact in St Lucia do you think we are all stupid ? Where was the drop point suppose to be….at the market ? Point Seraphine ??? Nudge I tell you already it’s just the tail you are missing and by the grace of God I will send you one…. I surfing thru Amazon as we speak. What was there to cover up ?? Heee hawww heee haw heee haww
This story is so fishy and incomplete do they search all passengers ? How did they know he had a gun ? Do we know if he had used it. Both he and hilaire should be in the same cell. He actually putting our safety at risk to look good on tv. This is serious enough with the games. Why isn’t the police speaking out on this Omg
Minister, you touch on two points which I am sure you haven’t thought of before yapping.
You mentioned the boat visited two ports. That being said you should have considered if the two ports are under the control of the US which enable him to go unchecked, if the boat didn’t dock in any of the ports that permit him to carry the weapon, it could be those two ports probably have less crime and the country have trusted law enforcement. Coming here he didn’t trust the authorities here because someone tip him off of how corrupted here is and he chooses to still walk with it fearing mugging. You forget when Norwegian pull out from here due to the crime spree before KDA was voted out? It’s wrong but he weight his risk. That’s all.
I’ve waited long enough to give my honest opinion regarding the strange tale of the gun-toting American terrorist; you guys are too slow:
I think that the bumbling Keystone Kops of the St. Lucia Police Force just accidentally stumbled on a secret plot to defeat all the port of entry security protocols across the Caribbean region!
* Purported students & faculty members of an obvious CIA front, CLUFP UNIVERSITY(Calvin Lake University of Financial Planning), were sent on cruises (and perhaps commercial aircraft, as well) in a effort to successfully breach the port of entry security protocols in the various islands.
* Once the mission was completed, the US would have had the leverage needed to convince the various governments in the region to allow unfettered use of their territories for their nefarious & surreptitious activities (in effect, usurping their sovereignty), under the guise of protecting them from the terrorism of evil Putin & the Houthis (wasn’t there a cartoon show about them?).
* But the bumbling St. Lucia flatfoots foiled the program after the 3rd stage of the CIA all-expenses paid cruise.
* What better person than He-Liar to squelch all investigations into the matter; put a lid on the hue & cry in all other islands, very sensitive to any activity that could endanger their tourist industries.
* But He-Liar let the cat out of the bag. He couldn’t resist braying about the accidental success of the Lucian coppers; he had been kept in the dark about the objectives of the CIA caper. He saw the opportunity to boost tourism in St. Lucia, by pointing out that the CIA caper had worked in two previous ports of call, but was stymied in the port of Castries by the state-of-the-art security available to tourists in St. Lucia.
Did I get it all? Someone with more info, let me know.