Local and regional police strategise at Gun Intelligence Workshop

Local law enforcement and their regional counterparts convened over the last three days to discuss strategies to address the critical issue of illegal firearms.

The Gun Intelligence Workshop is an initiative under the CARICOM Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (CARICOM IMPACS) Crime Gun Intelligence Unit (CGIU), and is considered by stakeholders to be timely in light of an uptick in gun-related crimes, including murders, affecting the country in recent years.

Just days before the three-day workshop held at the conference room of the National Insurance Services (NIS), St Vincent and the Grenadines recorded homicide number 51, 52 and 53 in less than a week, putting the 2024 count just two shy of the record 55 in 2023.

Delivering remarks at the opening ceremony of the workshop on Tuesday, December 17, 2024, US Embassy representative, Robert Marshall said since the Crime Gun Intelligence Unit was set up nearly two years ago, it has become one of the most “promising and collaborative law enforcement efforts” between the United States and CARICOM Member States.

“Caribbean Basin Security initiative is proud to fund this initiative and deepen our commitment to security cooperation to the government of St Vincent and the Grenadines.

“Over the last two years the US has invested more than two million dollars to help CARICOM stand up to the Crime Gun Intelligence Unit. Through the CGIU, CARICOM members and US experts are able to work side by side to share information in real time and are better positioned to solve crimes, disrupt criminal networks, trafficking rings, and ultimately, prosecute offenders whether in the United States or here in St Vincent and the Grenadines,” Marshall noted.

The Unit, co-funded by CARICOM and the Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, allows for the sharing of information between Caribbean countries and US law enforcement agencies. To date, 10 countries, including St Vincent and the Grenadines, submit information on firearm seizures to the CGIU.

Deputy Executive Director of CARICOM IMPACS, Tonya Ayow said the CGIU has, to date, received approximately 82 firearm-related reports from Member States and from neighbouring Caribbean islands who are not part of CARICOM. Additionally, there have been at least 20 intelligence packages compiled and shared among stakeholders.

“Most recently quick action by the CGIU, the member states and US partners has led to the detention of a suspect on their return to the United States and the reopening of previously dormant cases. There continues to be an increase in the interception of firearms at the US border and within CARICOM Member States there is an increase in the number of port and inland seizures involving firearms, ammunition, magazines and component parts,” Ayow disclosed.

Ayow said from intelligence sharing, law enforcement has been better able to identify criminal networks and suggested that all CARICOM member states establish similar agencies with their local law enforcement branches.

Marshall added, that the workshop will enable officers and other stakeholders to contribute data to further investigations in SVG and in other Caribbean countries which will, hopefully, lead to arrests and prosecutions.