HomeNewsWhy Are Trinidad and Tobago's Gangs Becoming More Violent?
NEWS

Why Are Trinidad and Tobago's Gangs Becoming More Violent?

CARIBBEAN / 31 MAY 2022 BY DOUWE DEN HELD EN

Authorities in Trinidad and Tobago have warned legislators that the Caribbean island nation is likely to see a rise in violent crimes, as gangs splinter and bounce back from the pandemic.

The country’s intelligence body, the Strategic Services Agency (SSA), issued its 2021 security report to Parliament. Though serious crimes decreased in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the intelligence assessment said that the country was seeing a new crime wave. The SSA also predicted the splintering of gangs, potentially “resulting in an increase in murders, injuries, shootings and other violent crimes."

SEE ALSO: Venezuela’s Other Plight: Sex Trafficking in Trinidad and Tobago

Shootings in recent weeks indicate renewed gang warfare. On May 10, a suspected gang leader was gunned down in Saint James, a district in the country's capital, Port of Spain. Four of the six killings during the week of April 25 were attributed to gang violence. Two of the men shot dead were suspected of belonging to the country's two largest gangs, Rasta City and the Muslims.  

In 2021, Trinidad and Tobago recorded 448 homicides, an increase from 399 in 2020. The tally, however, was below the 539 murders reported in 2019 prior to the pandemic.

InSight Crime Analysis

Three factors help to explain the complex criminal landscape and rise in violence in Trinidad and Tobago.

First, it appears that gangs are splintering and, in the process, becoming more vicious. In March 2022, Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds told Parliament that the 2021 killing of a gang leader had generated “deep ramifications in the criminal underworld.”

Hinds did not name the gang leader but he was likely referring to Anthon Boney. Boney was the alleged leader of the Muslims who was shot dead in a well-orchestrated attack in September 2021. He was driving on a highway in Port of Spain when gunmen dressed in tactical gear stopped his vehicle and shot him at close range.

Boney's death has caused internal warfare among the Muslims, a union of gangs with some 600 members. Other gangs have also used the upheaval to muscle in on the Boney's operations. In November, killings in Trinidad and Tobago climbed to 69, the highest monthly total since at least 2013.

"These newer gangs are anticipated to be more volatile as they try to establish themselves,” the 2021 SSA report states.

Second, the gangs are profiting from activities beyond extortion and drug sales, according to the report. Given their power in many poorer neighborhoods, gang bosses are presenting themselves as community leaders, and they have been awarded numerous contracts to execute public works.

Gang activities now include "illegal quarrying (sand mining), fraud-scheming, money-laundering, black-market sale and resale of US currency, party and events promotion, organized robbery, motor vehicle larceny, marijuana trafficking, counterfeiting, human smuggling and illegal gambling," the report states.

SEE ALSO: Venezuela’s Other Plight: Sex Trafficking in Trinidad and Tobago

Third, gangs have increasing access to firearms. In 2019, the SSA estimated that over 8,000 illegal guns were circulating in Trinidad and Tobago.

The SSA report pointed to both the United States and Venezuela as sources for guns smuggled into the country. Several Venezuelan nationals have been charged with possession of illegal weapons in Trinidad and Tobago. Corrupt customs and port staff have also been implicated in weapons smuggling.

Police corruption also appears to lead to guns being returned to the streets. The SSA report said that “illicit firearms seized by the police from violent criminals are making their way back into the hands of gang members.”

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

CHONEROS / 20 JUL 2023

The Choneros were once Ecuador's premier drug trafficking gang. InSight Crime documents their steady rise and their rapid fall.

ECUADOR / 18 AUG 2023

InSight Crime spoke with Brotherton to learn more about the history of gang legalization in Ecuador and examine its impact…

BRAZIL / 7 FEB 2023

A new report points out how the success rate in fighting money laundering across Latin America varies widely from country…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…