BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) — The Barbados government will next year table legislation amending the Proceeds of Crime Act so as to allow the authorities to seize the assets of people with no legitimate source of income.

Attorney General Adriel Brathwaite, addressing a ruling Democratic Labour Party (DLP) meeting over the weekend, said that drug barons and others engaged in criminal activities would not be allowed to flourish in Barbados.

“I want to ensure that if (you) see a fellow with a big fancy car and he doesn’t work anywhere, we will seize it and give it to the police. If I see him living in a big fancy house and he doesn’t work anywhere, we will seize it and turn (it) into a halfway house for people who are drug-dependent.

“I am very clear about this. We need to attack them and I intend to lead the charge on behalf of the people of…Barbados. We must do it. We cannot allow Barbados to go in that direction. We must strike hard. We cannot allow those persons with ill-gotten gains to destroy the moral fabric of this society,” he said.

Brathwaite, who is also home affairs minister, said that Caribbean countries have been hard-hit by an upsurge in criminal activity, not only because of economic challenges but because the region is now being used as a transhipment point for drugs.

“Over the last year we have had without doubt an upsurge in violent crime in this country. We read our newspapers every day and we see the heavy use of firearms and it concerns all of us,” he said, telling DLP supporters there is no wand that would make guns and criminal activity magically disappear.

But he said that part of the problem is that there is an ongoing fight with a generation whose value systems are “warped.

“I can understand a man going into a supermarket and stealing some food because he is hungry, but more often than not, when you hear about these robberies, etc, it is because they have a show …and they want to buy brand new gear and… carry some woman and make sure her head looks nice.

That is what they are robbing people about, not because they are hungry,” he added.

Brathwaite accused the main opposition Barbados Labour Party (BLP) for introducing “this fete mentality” leading to a change in the value system of Barbadians.

“They brought up this approach that you don’t have to work hard. Go to the politician and he will give you whatever you want. So we have a generation of young people who do not understand the value of hard work, who do not understand from the sweat of their brow shall they eat,” he said, adding that to this end, many of the youth of today need to be re-socialised.

“And that is what we have started to do in terms of going into schools and doing different programmes for them. It is a battle that we have, so it is not just as simple as sending the police into certain areas and crime disappears,” he warned the DLP supporters.