Port Container Scanners to be procured, says Cabinet

By Dana Malcolm 

Staff Writer

#TurksandCaicos, March 1, 2023 – The purchase of container scanners has been approved for the Turks and Caicos Customs Department. The approval of the long awaited security feature came in a February 7 Cabinet meeting, according to the minutes of the proceedings.

In November last year, following the bust of an illegal US gun shipment bound for the Turks and Caicos Islands, Arlington Musgrove, Minister of Immigration and Border Services told Magnetic Media that he was seeking expedited approval of the scanners as they were a matter of National Security.

The scanners will likely go to South Dock, he had said at the time, but advised that even with the expedited approval implementation may take some time.

“Funding for scanners is included in the redevelopment of South Dock. Technical assistance will be sought to assist the Ports Authority and Customs Department with preparing tender documents to procure the scanners. Container scanners are custom built so it would take 4 to 6 months before the scanner can be in place.”

To date, lots of information remains hidden about the interception of the guns and ammunition including who the shipment of guns was being sent to and whether they had planned to use legitimate means to camouflage the arrival of the contraband.

An approval has been confirmed before; this latest endorsement by the TCI Cabinet however comes following almost a decade of public agitation regarding the vulnerability of the Turks and Caicos’ ports to criminal activity like arms and narcotics trafficking.

Unlike the TCI airports (which within the past two years added scanners to its security systems) the shipment ports were incapable of reporting illicit seizures when compared to the rest of the region.

While that is now set to change, no concrete timeline was given for the implementation of the scanners.