The seizure of 233 illegal firearms and over 40,000 rounds of ammunition — the single-largest weapon find in Jamaica to date — rightly draws attention to the rampant nature of weapons trafficking in the region. This amount of weaponry is enough to arm a small military formation. Why would anyone want to traffic this many weapons into Jamaica?

Surely, it was not intended for the security forces, or your protection. The magnitude of resources and connections needed to acquire these weapons, and the level of intelligence and organisation involved in transporting them transnationally speak to existential threats to the Jamaican State. There are people in our society who profit from murder, violence, and a weak security apparatus, and guns give them the power.

Your Government recognises the threat illegal guns pose to our national security, and we have made controlling the illicit flow of weapons a major plank of Plan Secure Jamaica. At our annual security symposium put on by the Office of the National Security Advisor (ONSA), I outlined Jamaica’s plan to get the guns, which included greater capital investments in detection capabilities, in addition to stronger cooperation with partners.

Earlier this month, the United States Supreme Court delivered a unanimous judgment dismissing Mexico’s US$10-billion lawsuit against American gun manufacturers. Mexico’s legal challenge, unprecedented in its scope, sought to hold these companies accountable for the steady and deliberate flow of deadly weapons across its border — firearms that have fuelled violence, criminal impunity, and the ongoing destabilisation of their country.

The court’s ruling, citing federal protections that shield the gun industry from liability, likely closes one avenue that Mexico and other Latin American and Caribbean nations — Jamaica included — sought to influence the United States to do more to stem the flow of illicit arms throughout the region. The outcome is neither surprising, nor is it the end of the road.

Lasting solutions to the problem of illicit arms trafficking will come through collaboration, not litigation. As such, the Supreme Court’s decision does not close the door on progress. Rather, it reinforces the importance of working within the framework of our bilateral relationship, using law enforcement cooperation, policy dialogue, and legislative engagement as the pillars of our collective security.

Let us be unequivocal: The vast majority of firearms trafficked into Jamaica — around 85 per cent of weapons seized in 2023 — come via the United States, and they are used by local criminal groups to perpetuate violence, hollow out our communities, and challenge our security forces. These include high-powered rifles, military-grade pistols, and extended-magazine clips with ammunition, which are the preferred tools of contract killers, gang lords, and criminal networks who undermine the sovereignty of our nation every day.

Some of these weapons are smuggled directly onto our shores on boats from third countries, such as Haiti and Nicaragua, but the majority are smuggled through legal freight channels directly from ports such as Miami, as with the recent batch of 233 firearms intercepted at a wharf warehouse. Either way, tracing on these firearms often reveals that they were originally legal purchases — from gun stores in US states such as Florida, Georgia, and Texas — diverted to illegal channels.

Jamaica respects the sovereignty of the US and its constitutional commitments. The issue at hand is not the lawful manufacture or ownership of firearms in the United States, it is the illegal diversion of those weapons into our territory. Reducing the flow of illegal firearms is critical to our national security, but it is also a collective security imperative for the region.

The same criminal networks in the Caribbean that engage in the trafficking of humans, narcotics, and other contraband that more directly impact Americans are responsible for the illicit importation of firearms from the US. They represent a common threat to both Caribbean countries and our northern partners. Therefore, it behoves each respective Government to do its part to undermine, stifle, and dismantle these networks.

The US rightly expects Jamaica to do its part in intercepting narcotics, stemming human trafficking, and clamping down on illicit financial flows. We cooperate not only because we are partners, but because we recognise the moral and security imperative. Similarly, we expect the American Government to also do their utmost with respect to thwarting the criminal actors within their own territory.

This is not to suggest that the US Government has been uncooperative by any measure. Our two countries have long shared a strong and enduring partnership, rooted in mutual respect, common values, and shared security interests. The security assistance Jamaica has received under programmes such as the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative has been instrumental in helping us build up the capacity of our security forces. Moreover, the relationship between Jamaican security forces and US security agencies, such as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and Homeland Security Investigations, run deeper than ever, with regular intelligence sharing and joint operations to interdict criminal elements. The judgment handed down by the Supreme Court does not diminish this bond; instead, it sharpens our focus on the concrete steps we can take together to combat illicit arms trafficking.

There is, for example, room for improvement at the legislative level, and on this front there is cause for optimism. In recent years the US Government has taken notable steps to enhance federal enforcement against gun trafficking. The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, passed in 2022, introduced tougher penalties for straw purchases and created new trafficking offences. More recently, the proposed Caribbean Arms Trafficking Causes Harm (CATCH) Act, though not yet passed, signals growing willingness within the US Congress to curb the unintended consequences that American gun laws have on neighbouring states. The CATCH Act would mandate the US Department of Justice to track and report on gun trafficking to the Caribbean, while strengthening enforcement cooperation with our region.

My Government has been steadfast in its diplomatic engagements with the US on these issues, and we encourage Caricom and the broader Latin American and Caribbean community to escalate our collective diplomatic engagement, using every multilateral forum available — whether at the Organization of American States, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, or the Arms Trade Treaty mechanism.

There is also scope to expand joint operations between US agencies and Jamaican law enforcement to better map trafficking networks and dismantle them from the inside out. There is value in more robust data sharing on suspicious bulk purchases, serial numbers, and interstate transfers. And there is a need for greater engagement with the Jamaican Diaspora in the US — not to cast blame, but to raise awareness that firearms shipped in barrels or couriered under false pretences do real harm to real communities back home.

That cooperation must also expand to cover the wider region of Latin America and the Caribbean. Although the majority of weapons and ammunition seized in Jamaica come via the US, a not-insignificant amount come more directly from other countries in the region, including Latin American countries with their own native arms industries — for example, Brazil, Colombia, and, yes, Mexico as well. If we focus solely on stemming the flow from the US, criminal organisations in Jamaica will simply lean more on suppliers elsewhere.

On our side, my Administration has already taken concrete steps to tackle the importation of illegal weapons. We have invested heavily in border security by augmenting the maritime capabilities of the Jamaica Defence Force Coast Guard as well as the technology available to Jamaica Customs. We have upgraded legislation, including the new Firearms Act, imposing severe penalties on illicit gun possession and trafficking. We have expanded intelligence-sharing with our international partners and implemented anti-gang strategies rooted in data and community upgrading.

The Jamaican people can rest assured that this Government remains committed to pursuing every available avenue to protect our communities. And we are confident that, with our partners in the US, we can build a regional security environment in which the interests of lawful citizens, on both sides of the border, prevail over the ambitions of criminals.

Dr Andrew Holness is prime minister of Jamaica, minister of defence and chairman of the National Security Council.

Dr Andrew Holness (Photo: Llewellyn Wynter)