The lead investigator for weapons trafficking in the Caribbean area, according to a new report from the U.S. government confirms what place leaders have long been saying: 90 % of the firearms used in 90 % of homicides are American.
Three senior House and Senate Democrats requested a review from the Government Accountability Office, which also highlights the lack of social will on the part of some Caribbean governments and the shortcomings in the United States in addressing the issue.
The statement notes that while 73 % of the artillery recovered over a five-year interval between 2018-23 by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, were traced up to the U. S., some Caribbean governments have shown greater eagerness than others to retrieve and track weapon. Also, despite their complaining, some countries do not allow sting operations, known as international controlled deliveries, to identify illegal trafficking networks by allowing shipments of inoperable guns to go to the intended recipients.
The report also found that the majority of the firearms recovered in the Caribbean were , sold in Florida, Georgia and Texas.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas said the report highlights the acute crisis in Haiti, where heavily armed gangs have the country under siege, and calls for greater attention.
According to Castro, a ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere,” the most effective way to address violence and instability in the Caribbean is to prevent American firearms from falling into the hands of criminals.”
Gregory Meeks, a senator from New York, and Sen. Castro both joined in the push for the report. Majority Whip Dick Durbin. All claimed to have been contacted by Caribbean leaders for advice on preventing gun trafficking into the United States.
According to McKins,” These weapons destabilize communities and make the challenges facing our Caribbean neighbors worse,” allowing gangs and transnational criminal networks to commit crimes that threaten U.S. national security and regional stability. We must make investments to stop the flow of illegal weapons to the Caribbean from our shores. Doing so will protect communities in the United States, Caribbean and wider Western Hemisphere.”
The International Monetary Fund and the Inter-American Development Bank’s recent study, which both points to the high crime rate in Latin America and the Caribbean, coincide with the GAO report. According to the study, it impedes growth, causes inequality, and diverges both private and public investments.
The study notes that criminal networks are also growing more sophisticated and interconnected, across the hemisphere and in the Caribbean specifically, contributing to high rates of homicide.
The Biden administration has taken a number of steps to combat gun trafficking in the Caribbean, according to the GAO study. However, it also highlights some of these efforts ‘ flaws. Although ATF has used eTrace, an internet-based firearm tracing system, in the Caribbean, language barriers and the violence there have reportedly prevented police from using it, according to the report.
A Transnational Criminal Investigative Unit, which was established by Homeland Security Investigations and  and was inaugurated by Vice President Kamala Harris and  during a meeting with Caribbean leaders in The Bahamas last year, was also cited as the cause of the failure to launch.
In the other Caribbean nations, efforts are hindered by corruption, a lack of coordination between law enforcement, and a reliance on paper to track firearms in the majority of cases.
” For example, Jamaican officials said that their firearms records are paper-based and not centralized, making them less accessible and difficult to analyze. According to the report, paper-based systems are also susceptible to loss and unintentional destruction as a result of fire or water damage.
During the period examined, Jamaica led the 25 Caribbean countries and territories with at least 2, 250 recovered firearms, according to the GAO report. According to interviews, the nation, one of the nations where firearms enter unofficial ports without being inspected, lacks the resources and personnel to properly scan the large number of shipments being imported. Law enforcement in Jamaica noted that while the country has nine government-controlled ports, there are 151 that are uncontrolled.
According to the report,” Agenture officials said firearms traffickers will conceal weapons in legal exports and fabricate the shipment’s value, such as claiming the total value is less than$ 2,500, to avoid having to electronically file the shipment with the government’s Automated Export System ( AES ) and avoiding U.S. government oversight,”
One duty-free barrel of goods from the United States is also permitted to be imported from Jamaica every year during the December holiday season. As a result, U. S. agencies, in advance of 2023, increased resources to screen outbound cargo from the U. S. to the Caribbean via freight forwarders at the Miami River to combat firearms trafficking from the duty-free barrel program.
Gun-sniffing dogs were also successful in locating and preventing illegal firearm flows. However, ATF officials informed investigators that they do not intend to continue providing this assistance because of high costs and unsafe port conditions.
The majority, or 88 %, of firearms recovered and traced from the Caribbean are handguns, according to data from the 25 nations and territories, though long guns and automatic weapons are starting to pose a problem. In fact, of all the weapons examined during the study period, 15 % of all the long guns submitted for tracing in the Caribbean were nearly tripled.
Law enforcement in the United States and the Caribbean also see a rise in the number of products made by private hands and components. Additionally, according to law enforcement officials, 3D printers and their ability to print firearm parts may be boosting demand. In Trinidad and Tobago, a similar operation was discovered. The 3-D printing lab had been used to produce firearms, ATF officials said.
” Our country’s lax gun laws have created a vicious cycle of firearms trafficking to international drug cartels and criminal organizations, recklessly destabilizing countries throughout the region,” said Durbin, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
” Today’s report demonstrates the severity of this phenomenon, which unleashes violence, drug trading, and chaos in its wake, “he added”. We must pass additional commonsense gun safety legislation to stop the “iron river” of firearms trafficking.
Castro, the Texas congressman, has introduced the , ARMAS Act, which calls for the development of a comprehensive interagency strategy to disrupt trafficking. He is also a co-sponsor of another anti-gun smuggling bill,  , CATCH Act, with Democratic U. S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick of Florida.
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© 2024 Miami Herald
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