Acting Police Commissioner James Philbert and John Ries, Charge D’Affaires at the US Embassy hold a signed memorandum of understanding with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) of the US Justice Department to provide access and utilisation of e-Trace services. PHOTO: MARCUS GONZALES

Describing the influx of illegal firearms into T&T as “enormous”, acting Police Commissioner James Philbert yesterday signed an agreement with the US to combat arms trafficking. Philbert and John Ries, charge d’affaires at the US Embassy in Port-of-Spain, signed a policy agreement with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) of the US Justice Department to provide access and utilisation of e-Trace services.

The signing took place at the National Security building, Abercromby Street, Port-of-Spain. T&T was the 28th country to sign the agreement, which will comprise other Caribbean and Latin America countries. According to Philbert, e-Trace would lead the T&T Police Service “into the future” to stem the tide of rising seizures of illegal firearms and ammunition.

Philbert said police officers have seized 130 illegal firearms and 700 rounds of ammunition for the year. Last year, he said, 460 illegal firearms were taken off the streets. “We need to trace firearms and we need to know where firearms come from. We do not manufacture firearms in T&T and therefore the problem is enormous,” Philbert said.

He identified the Organised Crime, Narcotics and Firearms Bureau (OCNFB) as one of the units within the Police Service that would have access to information provided by e-Trace. “We have found a firearm used on our streets to commit crime and have traced it as coming from a theft from a pawn shop in North Carolina,” Philbert said.He assured that not only would the country benefit, but the region as well.

Describing the signing as “quite timely,” Ries said it came on the heels of the recent visit of US President Barack Obama, during the Fifth Summit of the Americas, who announced an initiative to launch a Caribbean basin of security. The signing, Ries said, was a symbol of the joint determination of T&T and the US to intercept trafficking routes in the hemisphere. “It is a pragmatic step forward, to work together towards improved security in the region.”

About e-Trace

It is a Web-based communication system which utilises the Internet to send requests to ATF for searches of firearms connected with ongoing criminal investigations, as well as firearms which are found or recovered by law enforcement officers. The e-Trace system is a paperless firearm trace submission system and trace analysis computer module that is readily accessible through a connection to the World Wide Web.