Natl Security Council concedes; Research required on TCI crime underworld     

Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer

#TurksandCaicos, September 19, 2023 – Front line crime fighting will now be backed up by research based strategies specific to the Turks and Caicos as authorities struggle to track down offenders.

‘A medium to long-term strategic assessment of threats and required measures to tackle the challenges of transnational crime and gang-related activity’ was announced by the National Security Council on September 6th.

This research will likely involve investigations into the shipment of weapons and narcotics to and through the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Police have found evidence of both types of contraband bound for, or already in the Turks and Caicos in the past 12 months.

Understanding how those items are getting in could assist in creating effective strategies to stop them.

Though very guarded with information, the police had told Magnetic Media,

“There is intelligence that would suggest that TCI, like most if not all countries in the region, have a transnational threat about organized crime with inevitable associated financial crime and money laundering.”

More research on gangs in the local space would also be beneficial to crime fighting agencies.

“The police are striving to map and assess the number of gangs and the current assessment is that the potential number of gangs operating in TCI is not exceptionally disproportionate,” the Police said in a recent comment to Magnetic Media.

In a decade and a half, they’ve gone from trying to convince residents that there are no gangs in the country, to announcing that warring gangs from across the Caribbean were at fault for saddling the TCI with one of the highest murder rates in the world.

With over 40 killed from the murderous rampage began in September 2022 to this month, the emphasis is now admittedly a need for research into these criminal organizations and how to tackle them.

The NSC has not yet announced a timeline for the strategic assessment.