Attorney General and Minister of Home Affairs Adriel Brathwaite says it cannot be business as usual given an apparent increase in gun crimes on the island.
Speaking to reporters today, he warned of stepped up monitoring at all ports of entry, including the seaports, where he said fishermen could be subjected to greater scrutiny.
Adriel Brathwaite
Brathwaite also said the authorities would be placing greater focus on small arms traffickers in general, as well as criminal gangs.
“There has definitely been, from my eyes and from what I have been seeing in the media, an upsurge in the use of guns in crime in Barbados. We need to see how guns are coming into the country,” he told reporters this morning, revealing that he had, as recent as Wednesday, held talks with the acting Commissioner of Police Tyrone Griffith and his deputy on the matter.
“ . . . And one of the things that we are going to be doing, we are going to get Customs to come in and sit down with us because, obviously, guns are coming in through our ports of entry. The Post Office . . . we know that we have to be more vigilant [there]. We are going to have to do more random checking in terms of even our own fishermen when they go out on the waters; do a bit more checking. It cannot be business as usual,” he declared.
“We cannot [assume] that when the guys go out fishing that they come back in with only flying fish and dolphin and lobster.
“I’m not saying that fishermen are involved. All I am saying is that traffic into the country by boat, by air, by cargo etc., we are going to have to pay more attention to it,” Brathwaite said.