US gang links - Study shows deportees' criminal connections
Jamaica Gleaner
October 20, 2003
UNITED STATES' aggressive deportation policy may be directly responsible for a large chunk of Jamaica's surging crime rate in the last five years, a six-month Associated Press investigation has shown.
According to the AP investigation, the 'ripple effect' of the massive deportations to countries in the Caribbean, as well as Latin America had triggered crime waves that were overwhelming the efforts of local law enforcement officials in some countries, including Jamaica.
The AP investigation included interviews with more than 300 police, deportees, church leaders, social scientists and government officials in the United States and abroad.
According to the report, in Jamaica, one out of every 106 males over the age of 15 is now a criminal deportee from the United States.
According to the Population Census 2001, there are 855,609 males above the age of 15 in Jamaica so the numbers may give an even greater cause for alarm.
Deputy Superintendent Aham Brown who is based at the Jamaican Embassy in Washington D.C. was quoted as saying "deportees in Jamaica have formed criminal networks that trade cocaine for North American weapons".
In the meantime, the Bureau of Immigration and Custom Enforcement (BICE) in the United States is reporting that the majority of the over 17,000 deportees sent back to Jamaica within the past seven years come from a pool of American street gangs, said to number about 800,000 strong.
BICE identified two of the biggest gangs in the United States as Mara Salvatrucha and Mara Dieciocho, both of which originated in Los Angeles, and are involved in the trafficking of guns and drugs. They boast tens of thousands of members in the U.S.
An analysis by the Jamaican police concluded that deportees, many of them gang members from the north eastern United States, were involved in 600 murders, 1,700 armed robberies and 150 shoot-outs with police," the article said.
According to local police, some of these deportees are now the backbone of 70 criminal gangs operating across the island. A spokesperson at the Organised Crime Investigation Division (OCID) told The Gleaner recently that at least 30 of these gangs are active in the Corporate Area and St. Catherine.
DRUGS, GUNS AND AMMUNITION TRADE
About a month ago, Deputy Commissioner in charge of crime, Lucius Thomas, confirmed that dangerous criminals in Jamaica were involved in drugs, guns and ammunition trade with Caribbean neighbours, Haiti. He said some of the guns that were coming into the island include the deadly AK-47 rifles.
While the United States Embassy advances plans to study the behaviour of deported Jamaicans, local police are complaining that their hands are tied in their efforts to deal with those who have been classified as 'dangerous'.
An official at the Jamaican Embassy in Washington D.C. in the United States said a list with the names of a number of dangerous deportees was sent to the police in Jamaica, recommending that restriction orders be obtained so they could be closely monitored.
However, such orders have not been placed on the perpetrators who have been released into communities across the island. The police are now required to produce transcripts of the individual cases for the courts.
DANGEROUS TO SOCIETY
Between 1999 and 2002 the Jamaican police have requested, through the Supreme Court, permission to monitor 68 deportees who were deemed dangerous to society. In 2001, the police said 27 were on their list to be monitored.
Reports are that since the start of the year, of the number of applications made to monitor dangerous deportees, only two have been approved.
Under the 1996 U.S. law, every non-citizen sentenced to a year or more in prison is subject to deportation, even if the sentence is suspended. Deportable crimes can be anything from murder to petty theft.
According to AP, more than 500,000 have been rounded up and deported, according to government figures, and this year they are being banished at a rate of one every seven minutes to more than 160 countries around the world.
As many as 250,000 aliens now serving time in U.S. prisons, on probation or on parole have been marked for deportation, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. The total number of deportable criminal aliens among the estimated 11.8 million non-citizens living in the United States is unknown.
MEXICO ABSORBED 340,000
Eighty per cent of the deportees are being sent to seven Caribbean and Latin American countries - Jamaica, Honduras, El Salvador, Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic -- places where jobs are scarce and police resources are limited. Mexico has absorbed 340,000, according to the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Staff reporters Glenroy Sinclair and Claude Mills and the Associated Press contributed to this story.