Secretary Rubio Pledges Further Assistance for Jamaica’s Anti-Crime Fight

United States (US) Secretary of State, Hon. 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 (JOLT) 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 noted further.

Secretary Rubio was addressing a press conference at the Office of the Prime Minister on Wednesday (March 26), following bilateral talks with Prime Minister, Dr. the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, during his high-level visit to Jamaica.

He said the assistance by the US will bolster Jamaica’s capacity to confront issues of national security.

“What we are talking about here when we talk about American assistance is America helping Jamaica build its own capacity, its own ability to confront these challenges and solve these problems because security is a baseline for everything,” Secretary Rubio said.

Acknowledging that many of the guns used to commit crimes in Jamaica are purchased in the US and shipped to the island, he pledged to do more to stop the flow of weapons to the island and build the capacity to tackle the issue.

Prime Minister Holness said that during the bilateral discussions the nations pledged to ensure that the partnership delivers results in driving down criminality and trafficking in this hemisphere.

“We reaffirmed our commitment to enhancing cooperation in combatting transnational crime, ensuring the collective safety of our citizens and mutually secured borders.

“We discussed a global war on gangs, and there is already significant policy alignment between both countries in this regard. The United States 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,” he said.

“This will exponentially expand our cooperation in fighting lottery scammers, transnational organised crime, trafficking in guns, and building safer communities,” Dr. Holness noted.