On the Caribbean island of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, gun-related crimes and cocaine trafficking are accelerating like a runaway train, and the authorities appear to be at a loss for a solution. In addition to weapons and cocaine, violent crimes against women are on the rise.
Official statistics show that there were 42 homicides in St. Vincent and the Grenadines in 2022. Eight homicides, including the killing of one woman, have already been recorded in 2023; two of them at hands of the island’s police, so the nation of just over 100,000 people is likely to break the record set in 2022.
The execution-style murder of American businessman Frankie Mitchell on the island of Bequia has drawn attention from around the world, and questions now abound as to why this incredibly diversified island paradise is turning into a cocaine-infested murder hotspot.
Islanders say the current government had promised to be tough on crime and the causes of crime when they entered office in 2001, but after some 20 plus years in the seat of power, the islands’ prime minister, Ralph Gonsalves, stated on December 18, 2022, speaking on WEFM, a privately owned radio station, that governments lacked the “magic bullet” to end criminal activity.
“Everyone should take an interest in the fight against crime.” “I’m requesting that everyone do their part to reduce crime, including families, parents, schools, and churches.” “A holistic approach,” Gonsalves said.
On February 8, 2023, the islands’ opposition party called on the government to collaborate with them on finding solutions to halt the spiraling crime rate.
“Crime in SVG is a national crisis that requires a national response.” Therefore, the New Democratic Party is renewing our call for the administration to collaborate with us and other social partners in the development and implementation of strategies to address the crime epidemic.
On state radio in November 2022, Gonsalves stated that he had told Police Commissioner Colin John that monitoring needed to be increased because there wasn’t enough useful information about some crimes.
“There is still an insufficiency of actionable intelligence in relation to certain crimes, and that has to be reviewed.” The commissioner knows this, and everybody in the police force knows this. From the perspective of the police, you can’t fight crime solely with force. “You have to have the intelligence to try as much as possible to stay ahead of the curve,” the Prime Minister stated.
Guns and drug trafficking
According to the authorities, the rising murder rate in St. Vincent and the Grenadines is mainly attributed to young people falling in love with the gun culture and the cocaine trade.
The increase in young male gun ownership was emphasized by Gonsalves in September 2022, “there is no opportunity in guns; it makes no sense.” 32 homicides had been reported in St. Vincent at the time of Gonsalves’ message.
In December 2022, one of the bloodiest months in terms of gun violence on the island, Gonsalves stated that “a lot” of the homicides on the island are connected to the cocaine trade.
“It is a small, minority group that is intertwined with the cocaine trade and its various offshoots, as well as everything else,” he said.
The islands’ citizens have been asking through radio programs and social media where the flood of cocaine has been coming from, and while authorities have given a clear indication as to where the guns originate, they seemed lost on the cocaine route.
On Saturday, January 22, 2022, more than 60 kilograms of cocaine were discovered in a government-run facility in the village of Owia, Northern St. Vincent. Lucrehsa Nanton, a 35-year-old nurse who worked for the government health system, pleaded guilty to the charge of having cocaine with the intent to sell. She was sentenced to two years and ten months in prison.
In October of 2022, it was reported that a vessel held in St. Kitts with cocaine and marijuana was en route from St. Vincent on its way to Tortola.
In 2015, police found more than $1 million worth of cocaine at Wallilabou, on the northwest coast of the island.
At a press conference held by St. Vincent police in December 2022, the islands’ police commissioner, Colin John, said that weapons, including semi-automatic guns and ammunition, had been seized during a joint operation between the police narcotics unit and the customs department.
According to Commissioner John, the guns were intercepted at the port of Kingstown. Two rifles, six handguns, and 200 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition were brought onto the island.
On January 23, police discovered one M4 rifle, two magazines, fifty rounds of.22 caliber ammunition, twenty rounds of 10mm ammunition, two rounds of 9mm ammunition, and nine rounds of.45 caliber ammunition, along with two black masks, at Rose Place, Kingstown.
Gonsalves said during the islands’ 2023 budget debate that one of the guns seized by local police at the customs was linked to a crime in the United States.
According to the prime minister, guns imported from the United States are linked to the cocaine trade.
He said one of the problems is the ease with which guns are available in the United States.
Violence against women
While men are at the receiving end of the gun violence, the increase in women facing violent deaths on the island is causing much alarm among the tightly knit population.
Take, for instance, the brutal murder of Luan Roberts, a family court counselor, whose body was found stuffed in the back seat of a vehicle wrapped in a bloody sheet; 17-year-old Precious Williams whose body was discovered with multiple sharp injuries in a bag on the road just mere minutes from Kingstown, the island’s capital; and the gruesome mutilated body of Veronica “Keisha” Small, found on the old airport runway in Arnos Vale with a piece of PVC pipe inserted into her vagina.
In 2023, the first woman on the island to suffer a horrible death was a single mother of two, Altavea Billingy. Billingy was the fifth homicide of the year.
It was reported that Billingy was stabbed several times in the abdomen by her ex-boyfriend; she was rushed to the island’s main hospital, Kingstown; she, however, succumbed to the injuries.
Citizens are losing trust in the system.
The public’s trust in the powers that be is an important tool in helping to solve crime; however, citizens say the distrust was laid bare in relation to the death of Ceja Weekes and the wounding of Cornelius John.
Natasha Weekes, Ceja Weekes‘ mother, claimed in February 2022 that a police vehicle ran over her son on February 2 and that he died on February 6 at Milton Cato Memorial Hospital.
Weekes said her son was left paralyzed from the chest down and suffered a broken leg and spine following the incident with the police.
In August 2022, lawyer Jomo Thomas said the Director of Public Prosecutions, Sejilla McDowall, found after a long and exhaustive investigation into the death of Ceja Weekes that her office did not think any criminal liability arises.
In the case of Cornelius John, he had implicated a government senator when he was shot on his property in April of 2021. In May 2021, police commissioner Colin John said that Senator Ashelle Morgan and Assistant DPP Karim Nelson were persons of interest in the investigation. In June of 2021, the DPP laid charges against Morgan, Nelson, and John, who was shot. In November 2022, Morgan and Nelson were acquitted and the case against John was dismissed.
The distrust goes further, with some members of the police force being accused of escalating situations rather than deescalating.
The Police Commissioner’s speech for 2022, in which he urged law enforcement officials to improve, made this clear.
“There are far too many reports of police officers acting improperly.” These range from alleged unlawful physical assaults to the way some police officers interact with civilians. There have also been complaints about police officers responding to citizen reports slowly or not at all.
It is unclear if, as in the cases of St. Lucia and Jamaica, the government would turn to outside organizations for assistance in finding a solution to the rise in crime.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines ranks seventh in the world for homicides, at 36.5 per 100,000 inhabitants, according to data from worldpopulationreview.com.
