With the vast majority of the guns used to commit crimes in Jamaica originating in the United States, repeated calls for greater efforts by the Americans to deal with the trafficking of firearms to the island seem to be gaining even more traction in the corridors of power in that country.

It has long been estimated that as many as 200 guns are smuggled into the island from the US every month and over the years American law enforcement agencies have introduced several measures and assistance to help Jamaica stem the flow.

But still the last official report said that of the almost 1,500 weapons seized in Jamaica between 2016 and 2018, 71 per cent came from the US.

Last Friday, US deputy assistant secretary for Caribbean Affairs and Haiti in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs Mark Wells told the Jamaica Observer that the problem of the trade in illegal firearms in the region is being given special attention by the current Administration.

“Illegal arms trafficking is a significant issue for us throughout the Americas,” said Wells during an interview with the Sunday Observer in Kingston.

“We deal with this issue in several countries. Some of those guns come directly from the United States, some arrive through secondary illegal sources. I know that they come from other countries and are often associated with drug trafficking and other forms of international crime.

“So we have a variety of ways that we are working with the Government of Jamaica, and other governments in the region, to try to control those flows. We understand that many of them come from the United States and we accept that it is a shared responsibility for us to deal with those crimes when we can,” added Wells.

He pointed out that the US has law enforcement officials in Jamaica to help stop the flow of illegal guns.

“That would include the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives as well as Homeland Security Investigations that have most of the jurisdictions for those kinds of cases,” declared Wells.

With an increasingly alarming guns for drugs trade involving criminals in Jamaica and Haiti, Wells, whose portfolio spans both countries, said this is also an area of focus.

“Haiti is going through a very difficult political, economic and security crisis [and] certainly illegal arms represents a significant challenge to the Haitian Government. They are committed to working against the gangs there [and] we are bringing our law enforcement capabilities to bear there,” declared Wells.

“We have agencies at post in Haiti to investigate those cases and that would include the connection between Haitian gangs and Jamaican gangs and drug trafficking,” added Wells.

The US official, who was on a three-day visit to Jamaica to meet with law enforcement and government officials, plus other State and social groups, noted that the US Drug Enforcement Administration is a central figure in the investigations into the trafficking of illegal firearms into the region as well.

At the end of November, the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) reported that 640 illegal guns had been seized across the island since that start of the year. That represented a more than 14 per cent increase over the 560 illegal firearms seized over the same period last year.

The JCF also reported that 8,993 rounds of ammunition had been seized in the 11-month period, which was almost 800 more than the amount seized over the same period last year.