Caribbean gangs setting up ‘franchises’ across the region.
The regional task force investigating drugs, guns and people trafficking says Caribbean cartels are using music promoters and performers as a front for organized crime.
Lieutenant Colonel Michael Jones, head of the CARICOM Implementation Agency for Crime and Security, says powerful regional gangs are also setting up ‘franchises’ in smaller islands.
He says this is bringing new levels of violence to communities previously unexposed to that degree of gun crime.
Lieutenant Colonel Jones says in many cases, those criminal networks have links to Caribbean nationals in the US who are facilitating the flow of weapons into the region.
He’s warning that gangs are becoming more sophisticated, more connected and more transnational, and that law enforcement must do the same in order to win the ‘arms race’ with organized crime.
Additionally, he says criminals are exploiting the fractured nature of policing among 30-plus island nations and territories across 1,000 square miles of open sea.
Photo: Lieutenant Colonel Michael Jones, head of the CARICOM Implementation Agency for Crime and Security