PHILIPSBURG — The presence of Italian mafia organizations like the Ndrangheta and the Camorra has been noted in St. Maarten, Insightcrime.org reports in its publication Criminal threats to the Caribbean in 2025. These criminal organizations are also active in Curacao, the Dominican Republic and Guyana. Insight Crime is a non-profit organization that publishes an annual report about the presence of criminal organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Though its latest report emphasizes the threats to the islands closest to South America – in particular Curacao and Aruba – its contents suggests that St. Maarten is not far from the danger zone.
All this is due to increased cocaine production in Colombia – the country increased production by 1,000 tons of cocaine, worth a dazzling $25 billion – and to the contested re-election of Maduro as President of Venezuela.
The report’s authors found that gangs from Venezuela are a special threat to the ABC-islands – Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao and that the Caribbean will see a significant increase in transnational crime this year.
The increased cocaine production in Colombia will increase the corruptive power of criminal organizations, according to Crime Insight. This is particularly true for Venezuela that, due to greater international isolation and sanctions will have to rely more on criminal revenue to stay afloat.
Criminal organizations are looking for alternative routes to export their drugs in an effort to avoid more heavily policed ports of entry. “The Caribbean is very vulnerable and will see more cocaine pass through its territories,” the report warns.
The fragile state of democracy in many Caribbean nations is another factor. “They are challenged not just by populism and autocracy but also by organized crime penetrating the state,” Crime Insight reports. “Political instability is the criminals’ friend, as it undermines state strategies and security capacity and often pushes law enforcement efforts further down the list of government priorities.”
In this environment cocaine trafficking from Colombia and human smuggling and trafficking are the primary threats to the Caribbean. The report details how Colombia’s increased cocaine production affects the region. In 2023 the country increased cultivation by 10 percent and cocaine production by a staggering 53 percent. Several transports have been intercepted by law enforcement, for instance near Martinique, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica. In 2022 the price for a kilo of cocaine on the European market was $40,000 with peaks of up to $80,000 in some regions. The increased production has not resulted in lower prices. This indicates, according to the report, that the global market for cocaine is still expanding.
Drugs trafficking is not the only criminal activity that threatens the wellbeing of Caribbean nations. Insight Crime also warns for an increase in human smuggling and human trafficking. This is due to Venezuela’s continuing economic crisis and the fact that Maduro has started his third term in office. Many people are fleeing the country and some of them are easy to recruit for criminal organizations.
Some Caribbean nations struggle with their fight against these crimes. Curacao and St. Maarten are among them: the US State Department placed both countries on the lowest tier in their 2023 Trafficking in Persons report.
Weak (or unwilling) Caribbean governments contribute to this alarming situation. “The Caribbean is susceptible to criminal governance and corruption. The increasing flow of cocaine and illicit money threatens to strengthen criminal networks across the region.” For good measure the report points out that, according to the World Justice Project, 80 percent of the Caribbean population believes that their elected politicians are In some way corrupt.
“Weak institutions, government challenges and limited resources create opportunities for criminal groups to embed themselves within state structures and corrupt,” the Insight Crime report observes. “In many cases criminal organizations directly fund political campaigns or bribe officials ensuring favorable policies and limited enforcement of anti-crime measures.”
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Related link: Report Criminal threats to the Caribbean in 2025
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