T&T GANGSTERS USE HAITI-STYLE GUNS

SOME gangsters in Trinidad and Tobago are using similar weapons to goons in Haiti.

Various American-made assault guns and ammunition are in the hands of T&T’s vicious criminals, according to multi-agency United States reports being considered by the recently-appointed Convenor for Caribbean Firearms Prosecutions Michael Ben’Ary.

The powerful weapons include AR semi-automatic rifles, handguns, sniper rifles and semi-automatic guns, Glock pistols, Smith and Wesson revolvers and magazines, some of which are more potent than those used by the police service.

The illegal weapons are smuggled into T&T through shipments or aircraft drops at porous borders after being rustled from Miami-Dade, Port Everglade and other secluded areas in Florida.

Some of the weapons are bought legally from US gun shops while others are sourced from the American underworld.

A “vast network of criminals” is involved in the gun-running ring, according to the US agencies.

Some shipments go to Jamaica and Panama, from where smaller vessels or light aircraft take most to Haiti, with subsequent stops in various Caribbean islands, especially T&T.

The American authorities estimate that there are more than 500,000 illegal guns in Haiti.

The gun trade is tied to the lucrative drug sales in several Caribbean territories.

Officials of several US agencies, including Drug Enforcement Agency and Homeland Security, have mapped the illegal operations, which led to the direct intervention of Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Blinken held several meetings with officials of T&T and Caricom, including a frank February discussion in Washington with Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley.

US officials, including Linda Specht, a Deputy Assistant Secretary, have visited Port of Spain to alert the Government of its shock findings and to seek cooperation in combating the illegal trade.

But diplomatic sources say the US is disappointed at the lethargic response of the T&T authorities.

Haitian mobsters have used the deadly weapons to create anarchy in their country, with more than 4,000 murders for the year so far, kidnappings, assaults, and other gory crimes.

The gangsters have opened Port-au-Prince’s prisons and freed dangerous inmates.

As in Haiti, local extortionists also have illegal guns.

Corruption in the public sector in both countries also facilitates the easy flow of illicit weapons.

There is no estimate of the number of illegal guns in T&T, but, just as with Haiti, more keep coming in, according to the American agencies.

A United Nations official also confirmed the gun-smuggling route.

A local parliamentary committee recently acknowledged the high number of illegal weapons in the country and that a gun sells on the black market for an average of $17,000.

National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds and Police Commissioner Erla Christopher have repeatedly promised crackdowns on illegal guns but guns are in free use by marauding gangsters.

The US last year seized some illegal weapons in the Caribbean, including T&T, after launching Operation Hammerhead.

Ambassador to Port of Spain Candace Bond has aggressively worked with the law agencies and coordinated relations with the local authorities.

But the firearm smuggling is continuing and it is driving the rampant crime in T&T.