WITH most of this year's 555 murders executed by illegal firearms, the Customs and Excise Division was grilled over the influx of these weapons mostly via lawful ports of entry, at a sitting of Parliament's Joint Select Committee (JSC) on National Security on Wednesday.
The JSC heard of the division's ongoing constraints that had led to just 3,998 shipping containers being inspected out of 23,000 imported into TT in January-August.
An alarmed acting Commissioner of Police Mc Donald Jacob said 116 sub-machine-gun guns and rifles were among the 626 firearms seized by the police this year
Replying to a question by JSC member Randall Mitchell, Jacob lamented, "It takes a lot of time and energy to mop up all these guns. It takes a tremendous amount of effort because as you said, 87 per cent of murders, the tool is firearms.
"I don't feel good about it at all."
JSC member Paul Richards cited the number of illegal firearms seized by the police, figures totalling 28,000 guns from 2017-2022, worth $350 million.
These were 8,154 firearms seized in 2017-2018 worth $100 million, 9,389 seized in 2019/2020 worth $119 million, and 11,043 seized in 2021/2022 worth $144 million.
Richards said, "I think this issue of illegal guns coming through legal ports is a crisis, because of the havoc one high-powered weapon can have on law-abiding citizens including children."
Jacob said the police found that global courier service FedEx had been used to import illegal firearms.
"We have a whole list of different locations in relation to the FedEx where it has been breached in relation to the courier service. There are some other minor ones but the main one we have identified is FedEx."
However he said that most illegal firearms come into TT through official ports of entry and come from the US, unlike the belief held by the police until recently that weapons mainly came from Venezuela by small boats on lonely beaches at night.
"Most firearms are coming through legal ports of entry."
He said the police have found firearms being imported from Baltimore, Georgia and Texas.
"It is only about five per cent from Venezuela. That was identified in the last two years. That's when the focus started to be on the Customs."
Jacob urged a focus on gathering intelligence so as to prosecute any facilitators of the entry of illegal guns through legal ports.
Mitchell asked if customs officers were affected by gun crime, as there were consequences to allowing guns to pass and to any ineffective deployment of the division's resources.
Acting deputy comptroller Yasmin Harris replied, "Every member of Customs and Excise is affected directly and indirectly. We have hard-working officers."
She denied any lack of will among officers, but blamed an absence of tools and mechanisms.
Regarding lawful firearms, Jacob cited 124,000 requests "on paper" in the past three years to import firearms, with Customs and Excise data so far showing 17
