In addition to social exclusion and dishonest public servants, criminal gangs are also being fostered by the failure of several state initiatives intended to reduce crime.
Caribbean Gangs: Drugs, Firearms and Gangs Networks in Jamaica, St. Lucia, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago was a recent report published by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) that contained these conclusions.
According to the paper, “Cure Violence” programs that use a “public-health approach” to reduce gang violence have had some effectiveness.
The UN study bemoaned the fact that this strategy was rarely employed, to the detriment of the surrounding nations, even though it was promoted during the Caricom conference on crime that was held in Trinidad last year.
“Despite advocating for a public-health response, several Caribbean governments have simultaneously stepped up their ‘tough on crime’ measures, enacting states of emergency, promulgating anti-gang legislation, and instituting anti-gang units or authorizing heavy-handed policing strategies.”
Region-wide reactions to the police’s heavy-handed tactics were not uniform.
“While tough-on-crime policing strategies have resulted in an increase in arrests and drug seizures, an erosion of trust has occurred within the heavily policed communities.”
“There is also concern regarding extra-judicial violence.”
According to the study, extrajudicial executions by the police have resulted in St Lucia being subject to US Leahy Law sanctions. Additionally, extrajudicial violence has been reported in Jamaica and Guyana.
Extrajudicial executions were not discussed in T&T.
According to the Leahy Laws, the US Department of State and Department of Defense are not allowed to arm foreign security force units that commit human rights violations without consequence.
According to the research, the four countries’ efforts to combat gangs have had unintended but negative consequences.
“Caribbean, US, and EU-backed measures to crack down on gang leadership are also generating unintended outcomes.”
“Some gang leaders lower their profile and go underground while others are killed or imprisoned and replaced with ever more violent contenders. As seen elsewhere in the world, gang splintering tends to be violence-generating.”
“Several national governments across the Caricom region have expressed concern that drug trafficking, gang fragmentation, and insecurity could worsen in the coming years.”
The study stated that efforts to apprehend T&T gang leaders had significantly increased, while there have been some unfavorable consequences as well.
“On the other hand, the removal of gang leaders has also resulted in the splintering of many gangs and increased inter- and intra-factional violence as groups compete over territory and drug trafficking routes.”
“Heavy-handed measures to tackle criminal groups such as drug cartels and gangs can trigger increased violence, as in the case of T&T.”
According to the assessment, the Strategic Services Agency (SSA) forecasted “a new violent crime wave” in 2021 as a result of major gangs disintegrating, which would raise the number of homicides, shootings, and other violent crimes. Meanwhile, T&T gangs are getting access to higher-caliber weapons from domestic sources, the US, and Venezuela, and have expanded into new industries including fraud, money laundering, robbery, human smuggling, and illicit gaming.
The study lamented the T&T government’s decision to discontinue several peace efforts.
“A range of preventive measures, including ceasefires, truces, and informal negotiations, have also been explored in the Caribbean.”
“In some cases, truces appear to contribute to short-term reductions in homicide. However, the evidence on their effectiveness is mixed.”
“Preventive approaches that deploy trusted intermediaries to disrupt or interrupt violence before it escalates are credited with positive outcomes.”
“Cure Violence, a group that treats violence as a public health problem, has demonstrated positive outcomes in both Jamaica and T&T.”
“The so-called project Resolve Enmity, Articulate Solutions, Organize Neighborhoods (REASON) initiative was supported between 2015 and 2017 in T&T and is credited with reducing homicides by 45 percent in 16 neighborhoods. But funding was discontinued in 2017.”
“A follow-up program called Building Blocks also reduced shootouts between 2020-2022 but was discontinued in 2022.”
Unlike such official measures, however, gangland truces and ceasefires usually only served to curb short-term hostilities; worse, they were frequently broken, leading to sharp spikes in retaliatory violence.
The study also lamented the way that organized crime and gangs are fostered by government corruption, state apathy, and societal neglect.
Concerning societal neglect, the UNODC stated that many gang customs in Guyana, Jamaica, St. Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago date back to the middle of the 20th century.
“Many of the predecessors of the region’s contemporary gangs were in fact ‘self-help’ and ‘neighborhood improvement’ groups that operated in low-income and informal settlements where the State exerted limited presence.”
“Whether transnationally connected or operating in a highly localized manner, most gangs emerge in response to criminal opportunity and in conditions of social and economic deprivation.”
In addition, gangs now deal with certain young people’s social isolation.
“And while most gangs seek to generate profits for their leadership, they also play a role in incubating a sense of belonging and identity to the rank and file.”
“The composition of gangs is overwhelmingly of younger males, often lacking educational and employment opportunities and deeply suspicious of public authorities. While often short and brutal, gang life offers money, respect, belonging, and access to intimate partners.”
The study also included specific examples of how dishonest public servants have enabled criminal gangs to operate.
“While a sensitive topic, it is widely recognized that Caribbean gangs frequently collude with state actors and private businesses.”
“In the case of the larger gangs and gang federations political and economic elites regularly make use of their services to influence elections in key districts and protect personal and commercial property and assets.”
The study referenced a 2009 Small Arms Survey paper authored by Dorn Townsend titled “No Other Life: Gangs, Guns, and Governance in T&T” in support of this claim.
“In exchange, gang leaders may be granted privileged access to public contracts (e.g., construction) and protection from investigation, arrest, and prosecution.”
According to the research, a few well-connected gangs help in the transshipment of illegal goods including weapons, narcotics, smuggled immigrants, and persons who have been trafficked, “with tacit or overt support from well-placed politicians, corrupt customs officials, and complicit police officers.”
“According to the perceptions of key informants, it is often the smaller players that are charged and incarcerated while those higher up in the hierarchy often find their cases thrown out due to lack of evidence or judges that are compromised.
“The considerable impunity afforded gang leaders has emboldened some to diversify into new businesses, including migrant smuggling and trafficking in persons for sexual exploitation to lawful retail and services with high turn-over including car dealerships, grocery chains, real estate, and pharmacies.”
The contribution of Caribbean political and corporate leaders to the facilitation of gang activity and illicit markets is not well documented.
“Representatives from several regional and national intelligence agencies are aware that a small number of businesspeople, often those engaged in import-export activities (e.g., cars and parts, agricultural produce, and oil and gas), and others involved in high-velocity cash businesses (e.g., pharmacies, grocers, and casinos) are more likely to be connected to trafficking and money laundering.”
Throughout this operation, port and customs officials could be purchased off.
Within the low-risk, high-volume transshipment of cocaine from South America to North America and Western Europe, the report noted official corruption.
“These drug shipments involve transnational drug trafficking networks and a small number of gangs and are facilitated by corrupt customs and shipping agents with involvement of some political and economic elite.”
According to the study, which also addressed the issue of public corruption feeding gangs, firearms and ammunition were “diverted from police and private security arsenals.”
It added, “Some (gangs) may also acquire munition from local police and defense forces, as has been reported in T&T.
“The presence of Jamaican and Trinidadian gang members in Florida and New York facilitates access to firearms in states with less restrictive controls and freight-forwarders to ship them in containers.”