US to support Ja’s crime-fighters

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced initiatives to support Jamaica's law-enforcement efforts and further build the country's capacity in combatting gangs.

He said that the Joint Operations for the Logistics and Technology Fusion Centre, a collaboration between the countries' law-enforcement agencies to tackle lottery scamming and cybercrime, will be reactivated and further strengthened.

"We can announce the synthetics detection equipment for Jamaica's forensic labs, another counter-gang-recruitment programme that we seek to launch as a result of our visit here today and announce something that I think is really important, that is, intelligence software for the law enforcement here in Jamaica to combat gangs, things like night-vision technology, and we look to do more," he added. Rubio was addressing a press conference at the Office of the Prime Minister on Wednesday, following bilateral talks with Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness during his high-level visit to Jamaica.

Acknowledging that many of the guns used to commit crimes in Jamaica are purchased in the US and shipped to the island, Rubio pledged to do more to stop the flow of weapons to the island and build the capacity to tackle the issue. Holness said the US has been "instrumental in supporting Jamaica's efforts to bolster its marine domain awareness and intelligence surveillance capabilities, which are crucial in our fight against organised criminal networks".