The New Criminal Highway: How Gangs Exploit Island Proximity for Murder and Escape

By Mark Collins, Former Chief Constable & Commissioner of Police, British Virgin Islands

Introduction

During my tenure as Commissioner of Police in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), I witnessed firsthand the evolving sophistication of organised crime in the Caribbean, a region where geography itself has become a weapon. Unlike larger nations with defined jurisdictional boundaries, marked by highways and checkpoints, the Caribbean’s archipelago presents a unique and perilous threat landscape. A high-powered speedboat can transport a gang member from one island to another in under an hour, enabling them to commit a violent crime, often a targeted murder, and vanish across the water before local authorities can respond.

This is the new criminal highway, and its impact on regional security is profound.

A Tactical Exploitation of Geography

Across the Caribbean, a disturbing pattern has emerged: a gang based on Island A orchestrates a murder on Island B, outsourcing the act to an associate who travels discreetly by sea. The perpetrator executes the crime, often with chilling precision, and retreats to their home island before the investigation can gain traction. In my collaborative work with agencies in the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI), Anguilla, Puerto Rico, and beyond, I’ve seen this tactic grow not only in frequency but in its level of organisation.

Criminal networks are deliberately leveraging cross-border violence to confound investigations, evade retaliation, and exploit the region’s fragmented law enforcement coordination. For example, a case in the BVI revealed a murder in Tortola that was planned in St. Thomas, executed by a hired operative from St. Kitts, and coordinated via encrypted messaging apps. By the time authorities pieced together the connections, the perpetrators had dispersed across three jurisdictions, leaving investigators with little actionable evidence.

The Intelligence Blind Spot

The Caribbean’s law enforcement agencies face a critical barrier: the absence of real-time, cross-jurisdictional intelligence sharing. Despite the dedication of officers across the region, many of whom I’ve had the privilege to work alongside, most operate in isolation, lacking access to shared intelligence databases, criminal watchlists, or advanced investigative tools. This fragmentation creates a vacuum that criminals exploit with alarming efficiency.

Without visibility into who is moving between islands, which individuals are on regional watchlists, or where patterns of violence are emerging, law enforcement is perpetually on the back foot. In a region where a boat can cross borders in minutes, the inability to share intelligence in real time is not just a hindrance, it’s a liability. For instance, if a known gang associate departs St. Lucia for Dominica, authorities in the latter have no immediate way to flag the individual’s arrival, leaving them unprepared for potential violence.

A Blueprint for Change

To dismantle this criminal highway, we must adopt a three-pronged strategy that prioritizes collaboration, technology, and capacity building.

First, we need a regional intelligence-sharing platform that respects national sovereignty while enabling seamless communication among Caribbean law enforcement agencies. Such a system would allow officers in the BVI to instantly access data on a suspect flagged in St. Maarten, ensuring that threats are identified and addressed before they escalate. This platform must be underpinned by secure, real-time data exchange protocols to keep pace with the speed of criminal operations.

Second, we must equip smaller forces with modern investigative tools and training. Technologies like open-source intelligence (OSINT), geolocation tracking, and digital forensics are no longer optional, they are essential for tracing digital footprints, identifying perpetrators, and preserving court-admissible evidence. For example, OSINT can uncover a suspect’s social media activity, revealing their movements and associates, while digital forensics can extract data from seized devices to link a crime in Antigua to a network in Grenada. Training programs must accompany these tools, empowering officers to master these skills and reduce reliance on external support.

Third, we must shift our mindset to treat the Caribbean as a single, interconnected threat landscape. A murder in the BVI may be orchestrated from St. Thomas; a trafficking operation in Antigua may be funded by assets in Grenada. These are not isolated incidents but threads in a broader criminal tapestry. Only through collaborative, intelligence-led policing can we map these connections and disrupt the networks behind them.

The Path Forward

The Caribbean’s waters should not be a playground for criminals, they should be a space where law enforcement asserts control through unity and innovation. Shared threats demand shared solutions, and those solutions hinge on three pillars: communication, technology, and trust.

Gangs have already established their criminal highway, exploiting our region’s proximity for murder and escape. It’s time we counter with a law enforcement network robust enough to shut it down, a network built on real-time intelligence, advanced tools, and a collective commitment to regional security. The stakes are high, but so is our resolve. Let’s act decisively to reclaim our islands from those who would use them as a stage for violence.