Thousands of weapons recovered from crime scenes in the Caribbean came from the US, government report says

Nearly three-quarters of the firearms have been recovered in several Caribbean countries with high crime rates were manufactured in the USA, This is reported by the American Government Accountability Office (GAO).

Nearly 5,400 firearms recovered from crime scenes in several Caribbean countries — including Haiti, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago — between 2018 and 2022 could be traced back to the U.S., the GAO said.

The GAO said they analyzed data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to determine that 88 percent of firearms recovered and traced in the 25 Caribbean countries they reviewed were small arms.

Despite the lack of firearms production in the Caribbean, Haiti in particular has seen a dramatic escalation of gang-related violence in recent months, with most of the firepower used by the criminals coming from the US, the report said.

The weapons are usually smuggled through criminal networks, as CNN previously reported.

“Haiti does not produce weapons or ammunition, yet gang members seem to have no trouble getting access to those things,” Pierre Esperance, executive director of Haiti’s National Human Rights Defense Network, told CNN last May.

To combat the illegal arms trade, the US is funding training and programs through a security cooperation partnership with thirteen Caribbean countries to “uncover criminal networks responsible for the trafficking of firearms.”

However, the GAO report notes that the U.S. could improve the partnership’s results by “establishing specific indicators toward its goal of reducing the illicit trade in firearms.”

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