The Council of Ministers of the Barbados-based Regional Security Council (RSS) began a meeting here on Wednesday with Grenada’s Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell underscoring the importance of cooperation in the fight against transnational crime.
Mitchell, who is chairing the meeting, told delegates including the prime ministers of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucia, and St. Kitts-Nevis, that the safety of the Caribbean was continuously under threat as criminal gangs were also coordinating their activities.
He spoke of a murder in Grenada on Tuesday night, where an individual was shot several times, saying “a preliminary investigation suggests that this was an execution-style hit and that the perpetrator may not have been originally from Grenada.
“So I am highlighting the challenges that we face, regionally that the gun-related criminal activity, while we are sitting here meeting, the criminals are also sitting and oftentimes taking a regional approach to their criminal activity”.
The meeting here is providing a platform for the Council to exchange ideas and discuss best practices for enhancing security in the region as the RSS member states, which now include Guyana, address common challenges such as illegal arms trade, drug trafficking, and intelligence gathering.
During his address, Mitchell acknowledged that the RSS has been playing a role in providing transportation for the movement of drugs during the height of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic as well as easing the travel woes of regional leaders following the collapse of the regional airline, LIAT.
He said since coming to office in June last year, last week Thursday was the only occasion he has had an opportunity to fly on a commercial airline, relying in the past on the Air Wing of the RSS.
“It is therefore my hope that this challenge of inadequate airlift in the region will soon be addressed in a positive way and that the Air Wing would be able to concentrate more fully on one of its primary missions of drug interdiction.”
Mitchell said while the RSS mechanism includes eight countries within the Caribbean, people in the region have been able to benefit from the work of the RSS which was created in 1982 to counter threats to the stability of the region in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
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