ROSE HALL, St James — In keeping with a focus on curbing crime at the regional level, the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) was invited to talk strategy on day two of the ongoing 49th staging of the Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), being held in Montego Bay.

“I am here at the invitation of Dr Andrew Holness, prime minister of Jamaica, to hear from the heads of government and to discuss with them how Interpol can support the countries from the Caribbean in the fight against criminal organisations,” Interpol Secretary General Valdecy Urquiza told the Jamaica Observer Monday on the margins of the high-level confab.

“Our focus is on how we can get the members of criminal organisations to be identified, and support countries in the region on their investigations and potential arrests, and also how we can support in the fight against drug trafficking and the trafficking of weapons in the region,” he added.

Speaking hours earlier in his first public address as Caricom chair, Holness had stressed the urgency with which crime must be addressed within the region. He noted that gang networks have evolved far beyond traditional street-level crime, posing a threat to the region’s security, and must be given the same urgency and coordination that characterises global responses to terrorism.

“I am on record as saying that we need to launch a war on gangs of a similar magnitude and nature to the war on terror,” Holness reiterated.

He also cited a July 2024 United Nations report that highlighted the problem of gangs in Jamaica, St Lucia, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago, noting that the report also linked surging drug production in South America and widespread firearm availability to rising homicide rates.

The Caricom chair urged the region’s countries to work together to cut off the access of criminal networks to resources, including the financial system.

Top of the list of Interpol’s seven global policing goals listed on its website is a commitment to “enable the global law enforcement community to more effectively counter and prevent terrorism through international cooperation”. Another of its goals is to “strengthen environmental security and support the promotion of sustainable livelihoods by countering crimes that affect the environment and climate”.

On Monday, Urquiza told the Observer that during his session at the Caricom conference he presented “some of the capabilities of Interpol, some of them that could be applied and used in support of the activities of law enforcement agencies in the region”.

He said the meeting went well.

“It was a strong feedback on how they believe Interpol can play a more active role in the region, and we’ll follow up on that and discuss concrete activities that can be tailored and developed for the region,” he said.

A Brazilian police commissioner with extensive experience in senior law enforcement roles at both the national and international levels, Urquiza has been in the role of Interpol secretary general since November 2024.

He previously served as director of international cooperation for the Brazilian Federal Police. Prior to that he was responsible for the Brazilian Federal Police’s International Legal Cooperation Division, International Relations Division, and Directorate of Information Technology.

Urquiza served as vice-president for the Americas on Interpol’s Executive Committee from 2021 to 2024. During that time he chaired its Operational and Institutional Sub-Committee, leading discussions on critical international policing matters and how to ensure a role and voice for Interpol’s national central bureaus in the framework of international police cooperation.