Transnational crimes a tier-one threat for Jamaica – Montague

National Security Minister Robert Montague has implored international colleagues to join together in fighting organised transnational crimes.

Speaking today at the start of the two-day Multilateral Crime Summit now underway in Kingston, Montague said Jamaica's crime wave is now being driven mainly by organised transnational criminals who are involved in lottery scamming, cyber crimes, human trafficking, drug and illegal arms trafficking and money laundering.

He says this is different from in the 1970s when crime in Jamaica was fuelled mainly by politics and in the 1980s and 90s when drug trafficking was the catalyst behind much of the crime on the island.

The security minister says organised transnational crime is identified as a tier-one threat in the government's five-pillar crime strategy.

He says criminal networks are not only expanding their operations, but are also diversifying their activities, resulting in a convergence of transnational threats that have evolved to become more complex, volatile, and destabilising.

The Multilateral Crime Summit is being hosted by the government, in conjunction with the governments of the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Colombia and the European Union and will focus on Combating Crime in an Interconnected World.