UN report raises alarm on gangs

A RECENT report by a key international body shines new light on gangs and demands a widening of discussion in terms of how this region tackles crime.

The deeply sourced report, entitled Caribbean Gangs: Drugs, Firearms and Gangs Networks in Jamaica, St Lucia, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago, was published in July by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), based in Vienna, Austria.

The document was jointly prepared by that body as well as an office in Panama. It is based on a methodology involving analysis of data held on official UNODC portals, country-level statistics, secondary academic literature, interviews with public officials, site visits, consultations with specialists and former gang members.

The insights yielded are startling.

For instance, the report lays bare connections between gang activity in Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago.

“Evidence of tensions between local gangs and Venezuelan groups is also appearing, as Trinidadian middlemen, who had previously facilitated drug and firearms trafficking, are being sidelined,” it says. “While studies suggest that migrants are no more likely to commit crime than locals, the capture of a high-level gang member in 2019 set off alarm bells.”

The alarming matters raised extend beyond the capture of people like Darwin “El Culón” García Gibori, the Venezuelan leader of the Evander gang, however.

The report notes a perception of an insurgent drug trade in Trinidad and Tobago while seizures have gone down; the Coast Guard struggles; gangs have diversified into contract killings; high levels of police corruption add to community reluctance; extortion and the smuggling of illegal drugs and guns are not being effectively impeded.

“What is more, strong cultural ties in southern Trinidad with Venezuela have ensured the coastal region, including Icacos, Cedros and Moruga, are sites of extensive trafficking.”

All of this suggests the need to broaden discussion of the gang problem beyond the usual platitudes about lifestyle choices, single-parent families, silent communities and bail restrictions.

One of the most notable insights of the report is the suggestion that tough measures have backfired regionally. States of emergency, anti-gang legislation, anti-gang units and heavy-handed policing strategies, it suggests, have simply eroded trust in the police and driven criminals underground. Often, the removal of a gang leader generates more violence because of gang splintering.

But perhaps the most chilling sentence in the report is this: “Several national governments across the Caricom region have expressed concern that drug trafficking, gang fragmentation, and insecurity could worsen in the coming years.”

If the already devastating crime situation is about to deteriorate, we urgently need to shift old, myopic approaches to stop this.

That begins with closing the knowledge gap as it relates to local and regional dynamics, a matter this report strongly argues for.