Abrahams calls for increased intelligence sharing across region

Gangs and criminal networks are exploiting gaps in intelligence-sharing across the Caribbean to move between territories undetected, Attorney General Wilfred Abrahams warned Monday, as he petitioned for deeper cross-border cooperation to combat organised crime.

Speaking at the opening of a regional legal forum at the Hilton Barbados focused on joint investigation teams for financial crime and asset recovery, Abrahams charged that Caribbean states could no longer afford to operate in silos while criminal networks increasingly function as a single regional enterprise.

“The only people who do not see the Caribbean as one domestic space are we, the policymakers,” he said. “The criminals certainly do.”

The Attorney General used a striking recent example from Barbados to illustrate the dangers of fragmented information-sharing systems across the region.

He disclosed that authorities recently intercepted a non-national who had committed crimes in their home country before travelling to Barbados and engaging in criminal activity locally. 

The individual was deported, returned home, changed their name and re-entered Barbados – not once, but twice.

“They promptly went home to their country of origin and did a deed poll, they changed their name and came back to Barbados,” Abrahams shared

“They were escorted out of Barbados again and they changed their name again and came back to Barbados.”

According to Abrahams, the individual was only detected the third time because an officer at the airport recognised them from a previous encounter.

“If you have a known criminal in your country who’s a danger to you, with pretty much the freedom of movement in the Caribbean, that person is a danger to us,” he said, as he addressed a room-full of other legal advisors to various regional governments. 

Abrahams cautioned that the same loopholes are being exploited by gangs and organised criminal networks operating across the region.

“The gangs in the Caribbean… travel easily. They jump on a flight; you may be a member of a gang in one country, you may not yet have a criminal record, so you’re not flagged by our searches, but you are under investigation for your gang activities in your country of origin,” Abrahams said, stressing that inadequate information sharing allows criminals to move between territories, commit crimes and return home before investigators can connect the dots.

“You perpetrate your crime in that country and you go back to your country of origin, having not been discovered where you committed your crime, you’re still there with a clean record. But because we are not sharing that information, even at the point of investigation, you are free to go and commit your crimes undiscovered somewhere else and return to base.”

The Attorney General’s remarks come as Barbados and several other Caribbean countries continue to grapple with gun violence, gang-related activity and growing concerns over transnational organised crime.

Abrahams said the region’s approach to crime fighting has to evolve to match the increasingly coordinated nature of criminal organisations.

“While we operate in silos, the criminals are developing multinational associations,” he said.

“We cannot win any war against crime without good information shared in a timely manner, whether locally, regionally, or internationally.”

The Attorney General admitted that mistrust remains one of the biggest barriers to effective cooperation, not only between countries, but sometimes within governments and agencies themselves.

He added that in some cases agencies within the same department still withhold critical intelligence from each other, noting a need to overcome the barrier. 

Abrahams said initiatives such as joint investigation teams, that is, collaborative units involving law enforcement and legal authorities from multiple jurisdictions, could help break down those barriers by creating formal systems for intelligence sharing and coordinated investigations.

The two-day forum, hosted by the Regional Security System (RSS), the Inter-American Development Bank and GovRisk International, is examining the development of a Caribbean legal framework for joint investigation teams focused on financial crime and asset recovery.

Abrahams said regional governments now have to move beyond discussion and commit to practical action.

“This can’t be just a policy discussion. The only option is for us to get to the point of complete sharing of information where it makes sense.”

“As children, we were taught to share,” Abrahams added. “As adults, we should share.”

(SM)