Illegal guns from the US fuel Caribbean murder surge

(CLO) The illegal gun trafficking ring from the US has grown so strong that it has caused a record increase in murders in the Caribbean region.

Dozens of soldiers and police officers recently cordoned off a neighborhood in the Turks & Caicos Islands, just days after the archipelago reported a record 40 murders this year.

They are hunting down criminals and illegal weapons, sparking a wave of violence across the Caribbean, while authorities struggle to control the flow of weapons smuggled from the United States.

“Rest assured, we remain committed to stemming the flow of illegal guns,” said Sheriff Jason James. But the flow is too strong. Illegal guns are blamed for a record spike in homicides in a growing number of Caribbean islands this year, including Trinidad and Tobago and the Bahamas.

Weapons and equipment seized from gangs at Port-au-Prince police headquarters, Haiti. Photo: AP

Guns are rampant in the Caribbean

No Caribbean country manufactures guns or imports them in large quantities, yet the region accounts for half of the world's 10 highest murder rates, according to a statement by US Senator Chris Murphy.

In a letter to US lawmakers in late September, the New York attorney general and 13 other colleagues across the US called for new measures to stem the flow of guns, noting that 90% of the weapons used in the Caribbean are illegally purchased from the US.

“American-made guns are flooding into Caribbean countries and communities, causing violence, chaos, and senseless tragedies across the region,” New York Attorney General Letitia James wrote.

In mid-2023, the US government appointed its first Caribbean firearms prosecution coordinator to help curb the smuggling of weapons from the US into the region, with the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) recording the number of weapons seized in the Caribbean.

Last year, 266 guns seized in the Bahamas were turned over to the ATF, along with 234 from Jamaica, 162 from the Dominican Republic and 143 from Trinidad and Tobago, according to the agency’s latest data. The majority were handguns, followed by semi-automatic pistols.

Information collected from recovered weapons could help US authorities determine where and when weapons were purchased, leading to investigations into domestic arms trafficking.

But stopping the flow of weapons remains a challenge because smugglers disassemble weapons and hide parts in containers shipped by sea.

The brazen murders

Michael Jones, executive director of the Caribbean Community Crime and Security Practice, said the rise in homemade weapons made with 3D printers has also led to larger, more daring gunmen, especially younger criminals.

He said that nowadays murders are not necessarily sneaky shootings on the street, but "there are people who are very bold to approach an individual, point a gun at their head and walk away" in broad daylight.

Jones said gangs were operating throughout the area, sometimes gunmen would come to an island to commit crimes and then leave.

On a recent afternoon in late October, a 42-year-old employee of the Trinidad and Tobago Forest Service was shot and killed while in his car near his brother’s home. He was one of six people killed in 48 hours, bringing the island nation’s death toll to 518, up from 468 last year.

In the Bahamas, a man carrying an 8-month-old child was shot and killed in early October as he got out of a car where another 6-year-old was sitting. Neither child was injured. It was the 90th homicide of the year in the Bahamas, which has reported a 23 percent increase in homicides so far this year compared to last year.

"We ask the US to do more"

Most of the weapons smuggled into the Caribbean come from Florida, followed by Georgia and Texas. They are usually shipped directly to an island, although they sometimes go through a port in Jamaica or the Bahamas first.

Guns have been found in everything from cars to washing machines. "This is a big problem. We're asking the United States to do more," said James Sutton, chief of police for St. Kitts and Nevis.

The twin-island nation has reported at least 27 murders, most of them carried out with guns, approaching the record of 32 murders in 2016.

Haiti remains the Caribbean country most affected by arms trafficking, which feeds gangs that control 85% of the capital Port-au-Prince.

“Despite the strengthening of arms embargoes, arms trafficking continues unabated,” a UN Security Council report released in late October said. “Gangs are increasingly acquiring larger weapons, causing more damage and posing a greater challenge to police and (UN-backed) missions.”

The report said smuggling from the US to Haiti is not a complex process, noting that there are many networks often based on family or social relationships and that “the vast majority” of the 200 containers from South Florida to Haiti each week go uninspected.

Hoai Phuong (according to AP)

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/sung-lau-tu-my-lam-gia-tang-cac-vu-giet-nguoi-vung-caribe-post321314.html