Four out of every five murder victims this year, have been shot dead.
As of Monday afternoon, 229 of the 280 recorded murders for the year or 81 per cent, were felled by gun fire, according to murder statistics tabulated by the Powerful Ladies of Trinidad and Tobago.
Last month, Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith admitted that on average 75 per cent of murders for the last decade were committed by people using illegal guns in his support for legislation to deny bail for offenders held with illegal guns. A figure backed up by the PLOTT’s statistics.
However, this year the spate of gun-related violence appears to be on the rise.
In February, before a Joint Select Committee on National Security, Acting Assistant Commissioner of Police Jayson Forde told the committee that the officers had been encountering more military type weapons than previously seen.
He estimated that over 8,000 illegal guns were present in the country, while police on average seized about 1,000 per year.
Criminologist Daurius Figueira believes that the increase in gun crimes and invariably the increased prevalence of sophisticated weapons used in the crime has been caused by the increase in transnational organised crime in the country.
“Why the use of these powerful weapons? It has to have to have a rationale reason for you to be purchasing these weapons to protect something that is so valuable that it is worth protecting and, therefore, it has to be an illicit business,” said Figuera.
Figuera noted that criminals moved from seeking AK 47s to AR-15 assault rifles, weapons that can only be imported.
“They don’t give you an AR, you have to acquire an AR. That is the reality. You have to have the resources in which to acquire. If you are an enforcer for an organisation and the organisation can choose you to be an enforcer and hand you an AR-15, well then that organisation has resources that could afford to import, store and protect those illicit weapons. That means that it has to be an illicit business that is turning over sizeable amounts of money,” said Figuera.
This need to protect their business has fostered an illicit gun trade in the country as well.
“As long you are in an illicit business you have to protect that business and you will protect it by any means necessary with the greatest fire-power that you could get your hands on. That means that you have a gun trade in this country that is so dynamic and so potent that they can get onto and acquire anything they want,” said Figuera, who believes that this transnational organisation also push human trafficking and the drug trade as well.
Figuera said the recurring issue of spikes in murders after a National Security official highlights a reduction in the murder rate, can also be attributed to these organisations.
“They have the power and the ability and the practice of sending political messages and one of the political messages they always send is the power they wield you know. Transnational organised crime will always make it clear to you that I am here and in your face,” said Figuera.