SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, Nov 13, (AP): Dozens of soldiers and police fanned out across a neighborhood on a recent night in the Turks & Caicos Islands just days after the archipelago reported a record 40 killings this year. They were on the hunt for criminals and illegal weapons fueling a surge of violence across the Caribbean as authorities struggle to control a stream of firearms smuggled in from the US.

Half an hour into the Oct 30 operation, one driver tried to run authorities off the road as he tossed a handgun into the bushes. "Rest assured, we remain committed to disrupting the flow of illicit guns,” Police Superintendent Jason James said hours later. But the flow is too strong, with illegal firearms blamed for an increase or a record number of killings in a growing number of Caribbean islands this year, including Trinidad and Tobago and the Bahamas.

No Caribbean nation manufactures firearms or ammunition or imports them on a large scale, but they account for half of the world’s top 10 highest national murder rates, according to a statement from US Sen Chris Murphy of Connecticut. In a letter sent to US legislators in late September, New York’s attorney general and 13 other colleagues across the US demanded new measures to stop the flow of guns, noting that 90% of weapons used in the Caribbean were bought in the US and smuggled into the region.

"American-made guns are flowing into Caribbean nations and communities and fueling violence, chaos, and senseless tragedies throughout the region,” wrote New York Attorney General Letitia James. In mid-2023, the US government appointed its first coordinator for Caribbean firearms prosecutions to help curb weapon smuggling from the U.S. to the region, with the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives already tracing firearms seized in the Caribbean.