I wish to take this opportunity to publicly commend the police team who discovered close to 60 illegal firearms at a port in Kingston recently.

This was officially announced to the public and media by deputy commissioner of police (DCP) in command of the crime portfolio Fitz Bailey. Some days before, a barrel was discovered at the port in Montego Bay with several illegal firearms. Kudos to the police and DCP Fitz Bailey for the excellent, outstanding, and professional leadership that he has been providing to the team of police officers under his command.

On a February 19 evening television newscast retired Senior Superintendent of Police Reneto Adams and former Police Commissioner Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin both publicly called for the United States Government to allocate much more financial and other resources to the Jamaican Government to assist Jamaica in cauterising the huge amounts of illegal guns and ammunition entering this country on a yearly basis and affecting the citizenry in a plethora of negative ways, the most significant being the murder of thousands of Jamaicans over the past 10 years.

I fully concur and agree publicly with Adams and Lewin and it is imperative that Prime Minister Andrew Holness has the necessary senior discussions with the United States Government for tangible, substantial, and firm assistance in this regard. According to the hard-working and devoted National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang, while speaking in Parliament, intelligence provided to him indicates that approximately 200 firearms are illegally entering Jamaica at various entry points annually.

The alleged corruption within the Jamaica Customs Agency at the ports and airports needs to be cleaned up. Repeated public reports implicating corrupt customs officers is a major problem. Those corrupt customs officers who facilitate illegal guns, ammunition, and drugs into Jamaica must be thoroughly investigated, found, and extricated from the customs agency. This corruption has been ongoing for far too long and some firm action is now needed.

There have been several allegations and even on some radio talk shows that bribed customs officers and other port employees are shielding these illegal importers of guns, ammunition, and drugs into this country and the barrels containing such contraband are not being searched.

It is quite clear to me that there is an urgent need for Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) specially vetted military intelligence officers to be placed incognito at Jamaica Customs Agency in order to meticulously gather the required high-value intelligence and evidence to identify and prosecute corrupt officers and their supervisors and have them extricated from the agency.

JDF officers should also be assigned to those privately operated bonded warehouses on a 24-hour basis, and the operators should undergo special security checks once per year.

Additionally, the Government of Jamaica should negotiate and sign a memorandum of understanding with the United States’s elite Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to have it assign senior agents to work closely with the commissioner of customs for a specific time period. These agents would work specifically to extricate the corrupt customs officers from the agency and be positioned to trace illegal firearms seized here in Jamaica to their origins in the United States.

Another significant problem evolving across Jamaica is that lottery scammers and cyber criminals with huge amounts of wealth and resources are forming criminal gangs in Jamaica, which are highly organised and involved in the importation of illegal guns, ammunition, and drugs. Firm action must be taken against these criminals.

robert.dalley1468@aol.com