United States-based Caribbean nationals with whom criminal networks have links, are in many cases facilitating the flow of illegal weapons into the region.
The disclosure came from the head of the CARICOM Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS) in an interview with Cayman Compass.
Lieutenant Colonel Michael Jones also told the publication that Caribbean cartels are using music promoters and performers as a front for organised crime.
He explained that under the guise of performing, a gang lieutenant might “make all the connections as to when are we going to move, what we are gonna move or, in some instances, who are we going to hit.”
In addition, Jones stated that regional gangs are also setting up franchises‘Â in smaller islands, bringing new levels of violence to communities previously unexposed to that degree of gun crime.
According to the Cayman Compass, he predicted new levels of coordination and cooperation would be necessary to properly investigate and dismantle gangs operating in multiple jurisdictions and on the high seas.
The IMPACS official’s remarks came amid an alarming spike in violent crime in several Caribbean countries.
Late last month, Saint Lucia’s Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre asserted that the incidence of crime and violence in the Caribbean presents a public health crisis, surpassed only for the time being by the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Pierre, responsible for National Security, delivered the keynote address at the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) 68th Annual Health Research Conference.
 He told the conference in Saint Lucia that failure is not an option in combatting the crime menace.
In this regard, Pierre advocated a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach to crime prevention and control.
He also urged real-time data on trends and dynamics of violent crime in various hot spots, and school interventions.
Accurate
Crime is inevitable, what we have at present is a system that fuel crime. One way the US border and control along with various security agencies such as the DEA, CIA and foreign exchange commission. They want us Caribbean countries to be the front liners to secure their borders from the drug mules. Believing drugs mules operate in an autonomous world, that they do not need weapons of various forms to product their trade. While the US invoke their 1st amendment right where citizens have the right to acquire and carry guns, somehow this is the major problem, and we Caribbean security agencies are unable to speak out and called upon the US agencies to secure our border by allowing their manufactured guns to enter into our country which are being used to commit crimes of various means. Remember no Caribbean countries are manufacturer of GUNS but some Caribbean countries are growing the illegal drugs to export. So, in other words we grow the consumable item and you manufacturer the deadly weapons, the US must be held accountable in this regard to make sure these killing toys do not leave their borders similar like how they don’t want the drugs to enter into their country. The loopholes are so wide open that what we are experiencing is equally problematic. The US have the most sophisticated technologies to detect the importation of illegal substances, regardless of its entries, land, air, sea and even underground. But yet they are unable to secure the exit part of the very manufacturer items they have, that become a killing toy and we do not have the necessary resources. While the US tax US companies who invested abroad there by taking monies from that country, the host countries give to the US investing companies decades of tax exemptions. So the effort of curbing crime is just a useless and senseless cause, it take 2 hands to clap not 1. Because of the loop holes the US system allow, exportation of killing toys will not stop at the end of the day legal or illegal it is business. We cannot fix issues at surface level we have to get to the root cause, and digging deep to fix the root cause is where you get the red tape.
@prober I couldn’t have elaborated better and like we say in creole there’s (no encouragement no teef)
US First Amendment right is there to stay. It will not be repealed in our lifetimes because the gun culture is rooted in American society. The elephant in the room is how do you work around it? Too much effort is spent trying to sue the gun manufacturers. Plaintiffs are faced with the fact that guns are legal products and they are not consumables, wearables or required for living. Then plaintiffs suing in US court are disadvantaged from the word “Go.”
The objective of fixing the problem should be focused on what’s within our means. Example, we are fixated on catching and prosecuting the person caught at Customs with an undeclared weapon. Meanwhile, the bigger threat (the person who shipped it) goes about their business. It’s a case of throwing the pin and holding the grenade. Sometimes, Federal authorities catch weapons smugglers and they serve prison time. That should never be enough. The criminals need to be brought here also so they could serve our time. The deterrence factor is absent. We are never going to turn the corner with our poor approach. We will simply spend the next decades attending regional meetings. We need to be truly draconian to fix this serious problem. It will cost a little more because of our woeful neglect over the past years.
@PF & Prober, do you know how many people are being extradited to the US, that never hold a US visa, who are being prosecuted and served jail time in the US for exporting the illegal substances? They find ways and means to convict you outside of their jurisdiction and we Caribbean countries are handicapped to do so for the US citizen? We are just fools that’s what we are!
The US busy patrolling Caribbean waters searching for illicit drugs all in an effort to protect US borders. In the mean time, they are doing very little about the illegal guns being shipped from their borders to the Caribbean. It’s all about money. If the drugs were being shipped from the US to the Caribbean, they would have done very little because the money would be coming in. That’s how it works people. It’s all about the money.