By: Staff Writer
May 31, 2022
Transnational crime is becoming a significant challenge in the Caribbean as cross border criminals are wreaking havoc, even during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Colin John, President Association Of Caribbean Commissioners Of Police and Commissioner of Police of St Vincent and the Grenadines, told the Conference that combatting transnational crime in the region is a priority for the organisation as well as fighting organised crime.
As the Caribbean continues to integrate and people move more freely between borders, so does criminal actors from the small to the large. “The theme of this conference is maximizing partnership to mitigate transnational organized crime in the era of COVID-19.
“When you speak of maximizing partnership, we speak of networking. Networking among officers in the region, and internationally.” Also at the event was David Rausch, vice president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) who added that his organisation is partnering with Caribbean and Central American police chiefs to specifically target transnational crime organisations along with terrorist organisations who hide under the guise of narcotics traffickers.
Mr Rausch said: “The transnational crime committee is working to produce broad resources and fliers specific to COVID-19 they have created an organized retail crime theft document and are looking to expand its working groups to employ Chinese money laundering and firearms.”
He continued, “Currently, the terrorism committee is working to develop a resource site for domestic violent extremism to allow for more readily accessible resources in one location and the narcotics and dangerous drugs committee has produced several resolutions related to data deconfliction and the steadfast enforcement of drug trafficking.”
Cybercrime is becoming more important during the era of remote working but was not a significant point of concern by the conference. While data deconfliction appears to be cyber related, it is not.
The law enforcement community generally defines “deconfliction” as the sharing of limited investigative information among federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement entities in order to identify common interest or activity. This is simply the building up of the networking system Commissioner John spoke about.
Gun violence, however, was highlighted at the conference by the host country’s Prime Minister, Philip Davis as he said that The Bahamas does not make firearms but they keep ending up in the country. Often times they are bought from gun shops and manufacturers by non-Bahamians and then shipped into the country. He vowed that this must stop and he has asked the US government to be more involved in the sale of firearms to people who clearly buy them to export as opposed to use for their personal protection.
International Police have said that 70 percent of all murders in the Caribbean are committed by gun. Guns are also twice as likely to be used in robbery and three times as likely to be used in assault in the Caribbean than the global average.
Firearms heavily feature in violent crimes of all kinds. Jamaica, Trinidad, The Dominican Republic, The Bahamas and Puerto Rico are all listed as countries in which firearms account for the majority of homicides.
Over the past decade the Caribbean has nearly consistently had the highest murder rate per 100 thousand. Additionally since 2003 the homicide rate for firearms has hovered between 65 – 80 percent.