Regional Law Enforcement Strategies in the Caribbean

• Author: Clifford E. Griffin
• Pages: 485-507

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Regional Law Enforcement Strategies in the Caribbean

Regional Law Enforcement

Strategies in the Caribbean

Clifford E. Griffin

Introduction

From the trafficking in illegal narcotics and the laundering of the proceeds

to attendant activities such as gunrunning and the trafficking in human cargo,

and continuing upwards to international terrorism, the Caribbean is fast

becoming part of the central nervous system of transnational and international

criminal activity. This activity is being facilitated at the global level by the

historical political, economic, and market linkages with North America and

Europe, and at the regional and local levels by the presence of an enabling

environment reflecting geography, relatively sophisticated communication

and transportation networks, proximity to sources of market demand, and

the presence of economies challenged by the changing dynamics of the global

market system. This environment enables criminals and criminal enterprises

to exploit the variety of avenues made available by these linkages, including

the thriving banking and offshore financial sectors, to acquire and market

their illegal goods and services as well as launder the proceeds of such

activities.

The region’s links to drug trafficking and the susceptibility of its offshore

financial sector to demands for money laundering led one US policy official

to contend that

drug trafficking, links between drug traffickers and terrorists, smuggling

of illegal aliens, massive financial and bank fraud, arms smuggling, potential

involvement in the theft and sale of nuclear material, political intimidation,

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Caribbean Security in the Age of Terror

and corruption all constitute a poisonous brew – a mixture potentially as

deadly as what we faced during the cold war.1

One outcome of this contention is that small and big and poor and rich

countries in the region – and around the world – have been forced to pay

more attention and spend more money to improve security, especially at

airports and seaports. For example, the government of Jamaica’s projected

investment costs for increased port security across the country, including x-

ray machines for inspection of cargo at the island’s two international ports,

will exceed $1 billion.2 From a law enforcement standpoint, investing in port

security makes sense in light of the transnational nature of crime in Jamaica

and throughout the region, and in light of the CARICOM Single Market and

Economy (CSME) and the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), two recent

initiatives aimed at deepening the level of economic integration in the region.

But while US expectations of Caribbean countries, both express and

implied, in this message are understandable in an international environment

of complex interdependence,3 law enforcement and security capabilities of

Caribbean countries may be hard pressed to provide the requisite responses

in terms of policy cooperation and policy coordination due to a combination

of factors, including resource limitation, criminal sophistication, and

unintended effects of policies undertaken by the US and other countries. For

example, US anti-crime and anti-terrorism policies, as well as policies of

many other countries, have resulted in the ongoing deportation of increasingly

large numbers of Caribbean nationals to a number of Caribbean destinations

after having been charged with a variety of criminal offences.4 And,

complicating matters for Caribbean governments, is the fact that these

criminals are arriving at destinations currently experiencing escalating levels

of domestic and trans-border crime. Given the apparent outcomes and

implications of anti-crime and anti-terror policies of the US, Canada, the UK

and other countries, the capacity for Caribbean countries to deal effectively

with domestic and trans-sovereign crime, especially in light of their own

development and security challenges, and in light of complex interdependence,

is a matter worth probing.

Does the law enforcement architecture within the Caribbean Community

and Common Market reflect the necessary preparation and requisite capability

to effectively address the increasing incidence of domestic and trans-border

crimes that threaten to undermine the economic, social and political fabric

of these countries? This is the central question that is being probed in this

chapter. And to provide a meaningful answer, I situate the analysis within