Crime in the Caribbean
Caribbean governments taking the fight to criminals in the region
Crime-fighters in the Caribbean are taking a bite out of crime in the region with the recent launching in Trinidad of Crime Stoppers International, the Caribbean’s “Most Wanted” website.
The website, which is the first of its kind in the region, allows police throughout the Caribbean to post photographs of suspects wanted in connection with crimes in Bermuda, Trinidad and Tobago and Latin America.
Lord Michael Ashcroft of Crime Stoppers UK said he believed the website will tremendously assist with crime fighting in the Caribbean, given its success in the United Kingdom and other parts of the world.
The launching of the Caribbean’s version of “Most Wanted” comes at a very appropriate time as crime in the region has escalated to the point where it has become a serious concern to all regional governments.
Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning in his recent opening address at a Conference on Regional Crime in St. Kitts, told delegates that “the heads of Caribbean governments, recognizing the challenges caused by violence, crime and public insecurity in the region have decided to make security a major priority in the Caribbean community.”
Prime Minister Manning is the CARICOM (Caribbean Community) head, who holds responsibility for crime in the region.
Part of the problem the prime minister said was that the Caribbean continues to be used as trans-shipment routes for illegal drugs.
Mr. Manning also acknowledged that the Caribbean needs collaboration among the security agencies of all countries and added, “I’m pleased that this cooperation is now happening at an unprecedented level amongs ourselves, involving the United States as well. It helps to make each nation more effective in dealing with this very big problem on our hands.”
Last year March, nine Caribbean countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives to help e-trace illegal firearms.
E-Trace is a paperless firearm submission system that is accessible through a secure connection to the World Wide Web. The analysis of firearms trace data is then used to assist in the identification of firearms trafficking patterns and geographic profiling for criminal hotspots and possible sources of illicit firearms.
The Caribbean signatories of the MOU are Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Barbados, Curacao, Dominica, Grenadines, St. Kitts and Nevis and St.Vincent and the Grenadines.
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30 MURDERS IN 20 DAYS
18 bullets pumped into fireman
Rickie Ramdass
Trinidad & Tobago: The Anarchy Continues:
ONLY six months ago Jerrold Maule became a member of the Trinidad and Tobago Fire Service.
He strived for excellence in whatever he did, and had dreams of one day becoming an airline pilot or paramedic, his mother said.
On Tuesday night, however, those dreams and aspirations all came to a sudden end. So too did his life.
Maule, 27, was killed when gunmen pumped 18 bullets into his body while he was at a parlour at Phase One, La Horquetta.
He lived at Evelyn Trace, Tumpuna Road, Arima, and was the father of a three-year-old girl and the step-father of a nine-year-old.
He was last attached to the Fire Service Headquarters on Wrightson Road, Port of Spain. This murder and that of drug addict Danraj Ali (see story below) pushed the murder toll for the year to 30, as compared to 33 last year.
Up to yesterday, what may have led to Maule’s murder remained a mystery to both the police and his family.
Investigators said Maule was at the parlour around 9.55 p.m., when a dark-coloured car pulled up and two men in masks came out of the car and began firing in his direction. In all, 26 shots were fired, police said.
Two other men-Jimmy Seenath, 21, and Ferdinand Dalipsingh, 34, who were also shot in the hail of bullets-remained hospitalised up to yesterday evening. Seenath was shot in the leg, while Dalipsingh was shot once in the right side of his chest.
Maule’s mother, Lynette Maule, and his wife, Melissa, spoke with reporters yesterday at the Forensic Science Centre in St James.
’I don’t know who could have done this and I don’t know why they did it. He was devoted to his family. He was devoted to his wife, his daughter and his step-daughter... His family is extremely proud of him for what he has achieved in his 27 years of life.
’When he graduated from the training (with the Fire Service), he was awarded the most outstanding trainee. Out of 101 trainees, he was the most outstanding,’ she said.
His wife, who did not say much, was nearby when the incident occurred.
’I just heard the shots and then saw him lying in blood. When I was trying to put him in the car to go to the hospital, the last thing he said to me, in fact the last thing he said was, ’Oh baby.’’
Maule died soon after he was taken to the Arima Health Facility.
Investigations are continuing.
What made Manning Caricom's crime head? Is it the fact that Trinidad and Tobago is the crime capital of the Caribbean, perhaps the world at this time. This is quite ironic.
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