By: Staff Writer
November 19, 2024
A US report said that 73 percent of the guns trafficked into the Caribbean between 2018 and 2022 were from the United States.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) in the US said in their Caribbean Firearms Report that: “The majority of recovered firearms in the Caribbean were traced to the U.S. and trafficked through various means. The Department of Justice’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) traces the origin of firearms recovered in Caribbean countries at the request of Caribbean law enforcement agencies or ATF officials in the Caribbean.
“While the political will and capacity of each country impacts the number of recovered firearms each country submits for tracing, ATF processed 7,399 traces of firearms recovered in crimes in the Caribbean from 2018 through 2022.
“GAO analysis of these data showed that 73 percent of these firearms, most of which were handguns, were sourced from the U.S. While Caribbean countries do not manufacture firearms, U.S. and foreign officials said that criminals in Caribbean countries can traffic firearms by air and sea using various concealment techniques and can obtain firearms through illegal markets.”
The report also said: “To help disrupt and combat firearms trafficking, the Departments of State, Justice, Homeland Security (DHS), and Commerce have various capacity-building, investigative, and border security efforts in place.
“For instance, State, working through the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI)—a U.S. security partnership with 13 Caribbean countries—helps fund various trainings and capacity building programs, such as the Crime Gun Intelligence Unit.
“This unit collects and analyzes intelligence on guns and promotes intelligence sharing with regional international law enforcement partners. DHS’s Homeland Security Investigations, a law enforcement agency, established Transnational Criminal Investigative Units throughout the Caribbean and conducts various interagency operations to uncover criminal networks responsible for trafficking firearms.
“DHS’s Customs and Border Protection interdicts illicit firearms at U.S. ports of entry enroute to the Caribbean. From fiscal years 2018 through 2023, it conducted hundreds of domestic interdictions, seizing 535 firearms and 3,167 firearm components at U.S. ports destined for Caribbean countries.”
The report added: “The average number of violent deaths in the Caribbean is nearly triple the global average, according to the Small Arms Survey.
“Firearms are used in more than half of all homicides throughout the Caribbean, and in 90 percent of homicides in some countries, according to a 2023 joint report by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS) and the Small Arms Survey, a global center studying small arms and armed violence.
“In 2021, Caribbean countries accounted for six of the world’s 10 highest national murder rates, according to a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).”