WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Representatives Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) and Wesley Bell (D-MO) launched the Caribbean Anti-Smuggling of Trafficked Arms (CAST) Act , laws that may assist curb illicit arms trafficking from the US to the Caribbean by requiring the Division of Protection (DOD) to report on increasing the mandate of Joint Interagency Taskforce South (JIATF-South) to incorporate combatting illicit firearms trafficking.
Crime In The Caribbean
“Weapons trafficking by the use of the US is a serious contributor to crime within the Caribbean and Haiti’s rising gang disaster, driving the continued instability that plagues the nation,” mentioned Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL). “All potential choices should be on the desk to successfully curtail the circulate of arms. Our nation’s nationwide safety is determined by it.”
Firearms Trafficked Out of the U.S.
“As a former prosecutor, I’ve seen how unlawful weapons can devastate neighborhoods and gas violence,” mentioned Rep. Wesley Bell (D-MO). “Too lots of these weapons are being trafficked out of the U.S. and into the arms of gangs within the Caribbean. This invoice strengthens our means to cease that circulate on the supply—so fewer households, whether or not in St. Louis or Port-au-Prince, should stay in concern.”
JIATF-South’s mandate is to conduct detection and monitoring (D&M) operations to curtail drug trafficking and dismantle Transnational Prison Organizations (TCOs) within the Caribbean area. The CAST Act would require the Division of Protection to guage the potential enlargement of JIATF-South’s mission to incorporate combating the unlawful trafficking of firearms from the US to the Caribbean.
Illicit arms trafficking from the US to the Caribbean is a threat to security. Caribbean international locations don’t make firearms or ammunition. Additionally they don’t import this stuff in massive quantities. Nevertheless, they’ve half of the world’s ten highest homicide charges.
Final Congress, Congresswoman Cherfilus-McCormick led the discharge of a new report from the nonpartisan Authorities Accountability Workplace (GAO) that examines the position of U.S. firearms in Caribbean arms trafficking. The report discovered that almost three-quarters of firearms recovered from the Caribbean and traced by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) might be sourced again to the US, with many originating from U.S. retail gross sales.
