Caribbean Leaders need to take US Government to task
Too many firearms escaping US detection…

By Stanford Conway
Editor-in-Chief-SKNVibes.com

Ammunition discovered by members of the Federation’s security forces during Operation RATTLESNAKE

For too long we have seen the deportation of Caribbean nationals, who have been residing in the US for decades, to their country of birth. Many of these deportees had left the region whilst as children and had inculcated the attitudes, behaviour, norms and mores of the society within which they grew to adulthood.

On return to the Caribbean region, these deportees have no fixed place of abode, no close relatives who are willing to accept them and little or no knowledge of the country’s economy and topography. 

Because of the stigma attached to deportees, many people are scared to employ them

Verlyn Zakers

Many deportees would not join gangs only to satisfy those needs but also to share, teach and execute the advanced criminal knowledge they gained while growing up in the US.
Additionally, drug addicts are also among deportees, and when members of this category of deportees do not have money to satisfy their cravings, they sometimes beg, steal or kill to acquire it.

The need therefore arises for Caribbean Heads of Government to collectively carry the fight to the self-proclaimed World’s Police for them to control or tame the monsters they created.

On June 12, 2008, Verlyn Zakers of Newton Ground was arrested and subsequently charged after three packages she was clearing at the Robert L Bradshaw International Airport were found to contain six firearms, over 400 rounds of assorted ammunition and a quantity of seeds suspected to be marijuana seeds hidden among children bicycles and an inflatable swimming pool. She was charged and is currently on bail.

It would be wrong for members of the public to pass judgment on Zakers; that is the task of the presiding Magistrate or Judge when she faces trial, for she may have been a pawn within a well-organised criminal ring. However, the fact is that she was the person who went to clear the packages.   ~~Adz:Left~~

But what about the individual who sent the packages and the employee(s) of the courier service in the US who is responsible for checking them? What about the US airports security systems and how did these packages get pass them?

The answers to these questions are very simple! Firstly, the individual who sent the packages is not a phantom and his/her signature and address had to be affixed to the relevant documents prepared by the courier service. Secondly, unless the courier service’s employee did not conduct a thorough check of the contents, he/she must have conspired with the sender and others at the port of departure. On the other hand, the employee will be innocent if the courier service is not mandated to conduct thorough searches of packages. Thirdly, taking 9/11 and threats of terrorism by Muslim extremists into consideration, it is logical to conclude that the US authorities are only concerned with what and who enter their country and not what and who leave, unless it is a deportee.

A recent meeting of security personnel within the Caribbean region and their American counterparts were held in Puerto Rico and, according to informed sources, it was disclosed that some 30 000 guns are missing from gun shops in the US.

Where are these guns? Have any of them surfaced in the Caribbean? Unless you are a senior member of one of the law enforcement agencies in the Caribbean that is networking with others, only then you may be able to answer this very important question. However, apart from the recent bust, drug traffickers and criminals in the Caribbean possess many unlicensed US-manufactured firearms. 

In January 2008, a joint operation, codenamed “RATTLESNAKE”, was conducted by members of the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force and the St. Kitts and Nevis Defence Force [SKNDF] in the Canada Estate and Key’s Village areas, where one M4 Carbine Assault Rifle, one .22mm Rifle with telescopic lens [with night vision capabilities], one 12 Gauge Shotgun and 360 rounds of ammunition of various calibers were found.

The M4 Carbine Assault Rifle was modified to suit the operation the owner(s) may have been engaged in, and the modification was made to certain parts including the trigger mechanism. According to the Public Affairs Officer of the SKNDF, Lieutenant Kayode Sutton, the Federation’s security forces do not have weapons of that nature in their armouries and it is the same type of weapon [less modified parts] that is currently being used by the Americans in Iraq.

Could this particular weapon and others arrived in St. Kitts and Nevis in the same manner as those discovered at the RLB International Airport?

I will not dispute the fact that many arms and ammunition in the hands of criminals originated from Brazil, Venezuela and other neighbouring countries; but, equally, so are US-manufactured arms and ammunition.

There have been 11 shooting-deaths and numerous gun-related incidents in the St. Kitts and Nevis for this year, and not to mention those in other parts of the Caribbean including Jamaica, the twin-island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and the Cooperative Republic of Guyana. In some quarters, speculations are rife that the majority of these shooting-deaths and incidents are drug-related.

The Zakers’ case in question calls for the local authorities to negotiate and collaborate with their US counterparts with the view of identifying the sender of the packages, and also to request his/her extradition to St. Kitts for trial, as the Americans did to Noel ‘Zambo’ Heath and Glenroy ‘Bobo’ Matthew in 2006.

Another issue of grave concern is the penalty airlines have to pay when illegal drugs are discovered aboard aircraft entering the US. The financial losses suffered by Air Jamaica are testimony to this. Therefore, it is incumbent upon Caribbean countries to enact a law similar to the US for all aircraft and vessels discovered with illegal guns and ammunition entering the region.

This strategy may prove beneficial to all concerned with the safety and protection of our region and its inhabitants.

Guns discovered during Operation RATTLESNAKE including an M4 Carbine Assault Rifle that is currently being used in the US/Iraq War