Five arrested in US to TCI gun smuggling attempt; One, a suspected Gun Dealer 

Dana Malcolm 

Staff Writer

#USA, December 29, 2023 – For the first time in over a year, significant updates have been shared by the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force regarding a November 2022 bust of a shipment of US guns bound for the Turks and Caicos Islands.

“What I can confirm is that the guns were intended to come to the TCI, we believe it was intended to Providenciales. Five local people have been arrested in respect to that,” said Dean Holden, Superintendent of Crime and Public Protection while responding to Magnetic Media questions in a December 22 national press conference.

“One has been charged with ancillary offences, so no offenses directly related to that but ancillary firearm offences which suggests his criminality is commensurate with firearms importation.”

News of the bust had sent shockwaves across the Turks and Caicos when it was announced on the morning of November 15, 2022. The guns had been captured as the country was experiencing a year of record murders in which entire families were brutally killed.

At the time, last year, it was said by HSI Regional Attaché Jeffrey Grimming said,  “Homeland Security Investigations, leveraging a robust criminal and administrative authority, work with our international partners to identify, disrupt, and dismantle transnational criminal organizations that exploit the global infrastructure through which legitimate trade, travel, and finance move. HSI’s top priority in the Caribbean is countering the trafficking of firearms into the region through HSI’s Caribbean Firearms Initiative.  HSI agents focus to dismantle these organizations both in the United States and abroad through collaborative efforts and partnerships such as the one with the Ministry of Immigration and Border Services, Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force and TCI government officials.”

Long-held suspicions by residents that American guns were being smuggled into the Turks and Caicos were solidified when the government revealed that US Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection had intercepted ‘multiple shipments of firearms and ammunition bound for the Turks and Caicos Islands.’

At the time requests for information were turned down as the authorities maintained it was an active investigation. While arrests were confirmed in the United States there was no indication who was waiting on the TCI end to collect the shipment and where exactly it was to arrive.

Though Holden indicated charges had been laid, no convictions have yet been reported.

Photo Caption: Guns stopped from entering Haiti from US in August 2022