GEISHA KOWLESSAR-ALONZO
T&T’s geographic positioning has long been touted as its primary economic asset, serving as a vital “bridge” between the South American continent and the global marketplace.
However, this strategic advantage has increasingly evolved into a profound double-edged sword.
While the nation’s infrastructure facilitates essential global trade, it has simultaneously become the primary conduit for a rapidly expanding and highly sophisticated criminal economy.
Alejo Campos, regional director for Crime Stoppers Caribbean, Bermuda and Latin America, highlighted a concerning shift in this landscape, estimating that illicit operations may have surged by 50 per cent over the last 24 months, with T&T being no exception.
This growth signifies more than an increase in volume; it represents a transition towards a “complex criminal economy”, where the traditional boundaries between petty smuggling and transnational organised crime have dissolved into a single, integrated business model.
This evolution is characterised by a shift away from disjointed, opportunistic smuggling rings towards the dominance of Transnational Criminal Organisations (TCOs), as further detailed by Campos.
Speaking at an event hosted by the Americas Society/Council of the Americas (AS/COA), which took place last week at the Hamilton Hotel in Washington, DC, Campos explained to the Sunday Business Guardian how these interconnected criminal networks are reshaping security and economic challenges.
The modern illicit landscape in T&T is no longer defined by fragmented smuggling operations.
Instead, these groups treat the Caribbean as a multi-modal logistical hub and, by leveraging the same “arteries” used by legitimate commerce, TCOs have optimised their supply chains to move diverse “product lines”—ranging from narcotics and human victims to counterfeit consumer goods—with minimal friction.
This corporate-style integration ensures that a disruption in one vertical, such as a narcotics seizure, can be offset by the high-margin stability of the illicit tobacco or alcohol trade.
The convergence of these illicit streams creates a self-sustaining financial loop that fundamentally alters the risk-reward calculus for regional security.
As Campos said, “It’s not just contraband groups. It’s transnational crime organisation and they are the same groups of narco-terrorist group or narcos group in Latin America using our countries to move different illicit goods like alcoholic beverages or cigarettes. The problem here is this kind of product supporting the economic finance of the criminal economy of these kind of groups in the Caribbean as well. It’s not just Trinidad and Tobago, it’s Jamaica, it’s Dominican Republic, it’s Barbados, it’s other countries in the Caribbean because the Caribbean together is a very big market,” he explained.
This integration means that profits from a single container of illicit alcohol or cigarettes can also serve as seed capital for more violent enterprises, creating a self-sustaining criminal economy that undermines the formal sector.
When asked about the growth of illicit trade in T&T over the last two years, Campos said that while he did not have precise figures, there is a possibility it has surged by as much as 50 per cent.
“It’s the same structure and it’s the same markets you move cigarettes, you move persons, you move cocaine, you move the illicit goods because you need to get a high benefit and if you need a high criminal benefit you can do anything between your borders,” Campos said.
Fiscal erosion and market distortion
The most immediate impact of this criminal expansion is reflected in the erosion of the State’s fiscal capacity.
In an era of global economic volatility, the “leakage” of revenue through illicit trade represents a critical loss of capital that should otherwise fund essential infrastructure and social services.
When tobacco, alcohol and luxury goods circumvent excise duties and Value Added Tax (VAT), the Government is deprived of hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
This loss creates a fiscal vacuum, forcing the State to either reduce public services or increase the tax burden on a shrinking pool of compliant citizens and businesses.
Campos expressed concern regarding tax increases on cigarettes, noting, “From a regional perspective, we are very concerned about the increase of the tax in cigarettes, specifically in cigarettes, because from our experience in other countries, we know that when you increase the taxes in different countries, the illicit trade grows up at the same time because if you put the legal cigarette in a higher cost on the market, people will try to find the illegal cigarette, the contraband cigarette in the illegal market.
“So we can understand the reason to do that, but at the end, the result of this tax increase will be a bigger illicit market in Trinidad and Tobago,” Campos further explained.
The economic fallout extends beyond lost tax revenue to the erosion of legitimate industry.
Local manufacturers and authorised importers, who bear the costs of regulatory compliance, labour laws and quality control, are increasingly unable to compete with “shadow prices”.
“I am sure the illegal cigarette industry is growing in the country (T&T) because you are in the middle of the criminal route between South America and North America and Central America as well. Remember in Panama we have the Colon Free Zone and you receive in Trinidad and Tobago a lot of illicit goods from Panama, from the Colon Free Zone and it’s the same route and it’s the same route that the criminals are using to move cocaine or persons,” Campos further explained.
Human capital as a traded commodity
The integration of criminal business lines has also led to a troubling commodification of human life, as reflected in T&T’s Tier 2 ranking in the Global Trafficking in Persons Report.
Within the operational framework of a TCO, human beings are not viewed through a moral lens, but as “perishable commodities” to be moved through the same logistical networks as physical goods.
“Right now Europe is the biggest market in human trafficking especially with girls and and children from South America and our countries in the Caribbean are just a bridge so Trinidad and Tobago is one of this bridge where the criminals use this country to move the victims but at the same time you have local human trafficking in the country as well because if you have a victim for a week in your country you will exploit the victim for 10 days or a week or 20 days after to move to another country,” Campos said.
This creates a secondary economy of exploitation that degrades the social fabric and increases the burden on national security systems.
Strategic recommendations for economic recovery
To reverse the tide of the illicit surge, the solution is not purely a matter of policing, as Campos advocates for a tri-partite alliance between law enforcement, the private sector and NGOs.
“The cooperation between the law enforcement and the private sector. are very important to try to fight again illicit trade. For the private sector, this means investing in supply chain transparency and supporting organisations that protect the integrity of the market,” he emphasised.
Campos also welcomed the T&T Government’s designation of three major Middle Eastern paramilitary and political organisations as terrorist entities, triggering an immediate freeze on any local assets linked to these groups.
He highlighted the precedent set in the Triple Frontier—the border region between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay—where Hezbollah orchestrated complex illicit trade networks to funnel millions of dollars towards global militant activities.
By implementing and updating comprehensive terrorist lists, the country is now better equipped to freeze assets and disrupt the sophisticated supply chains that allow groups such as Hezbollah to convert black-market sales into funding for terror.
