Major’s sights set firmly on eradicating gang culture in SVG

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER and Minister of National Security, Major St Clair Leacock, is firm in his resolve to rid St Vincent and the Grenadines of gang culture. Making his contribution to debate on the EC$1.9 Billion National Budget in Parliament last week, Leacock highlighted the numbers of homicides in SVG particularly over the past five years, noting that the homicide rate of 40 per thousand in 2025 “still places us among the most violent places in the Western Hemisphere…”.

“Crime is a tragedy for families” he said, but there is also “an economic crisis”. He referred to the economic impact of crime citing that “studies across the Caribbean estimate crime costs 3-5% of GDP” and with SVG having a Gross Domestic Product of 3.5 million, “this translates into EC 100 million in loss per year, that is more than the entire budget, due to violence”.

The National Security Minister spoke of being alarmed when he discovered “that the 6 [SIXX] and 7 [SEVEN] gangs are in our community college; they are in our secondary schools”, and his emotion was one of disbelief when he was approached by principals in the primary schools who said, “we have them too”.

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