THE FIGHT against organised crime can be tackled only by regional co-operation, says Bertram Milwood, Director-Principal of the Regional Drug Law Enforcement Training Centre, Twickenham Park, south-central St. Catherine.
He was speaking on Monday at the opening of a course on 'Intelligence Gathering and Analysis', for 27 Caribbean law enforcement officers from 10 countries.
Mr. Milwood challenged the officers to grasp the essentials of the course in order to improve their overall effectiveness and efficiency in the apprehension of illegal activities nationally, regionally and internationally.
"The collaborative efforts of regional and international agencies will be necessary in order to succeed against organised crime, drug trafficking, money laundering and terrorism", he told the participants.
The last 30 years, he said, had witnessed a gradual increase in the use of firearms in criminal activities and an increase in the level of fear among law-abiding citizens throughout the region and elsewhere, due to the illegal possession, illicit trafficking and procurement of firearms and ammunition. The activities of wrongdoers in the illegal use and procurement of firearms and ammunition was having a "very harmful effects on the security of states in the Caribbean and the rest of the world as a whole, and the firearm menace is now totally intolerable and very dangerous to the well-being of people and their social and economic development."
He said the course composition, with officers from multiple agencies and departments, was a clear indication that regional governments were determined to take all appropriate measures at the regional and global level to combat transnational organised crime.
And he argued that the collective purpose in training together was to promote, facilitate and strengthen co-operation among regional law enforcement agencies. On the suppression and apprehension of those involved in trafficking in people, Mr. Milwood said that organised crime had widened its scope, requiring an appropriate and comprehensive international response regarding the origin, transit and destination of contraband in the global village.
