Criminal market
3.20
Human trafficking
3.00
Human smuggling
2.50
Arms trafficking
5.00
Flora crimes
1.50
Fauna crimes
2.00
Non-renewable resource crimes
2.00
Heroin trade
1.00
Cocaine trade
7.00
Cannabis trade
7.00
Synthetic drug trade
1.00
Criminal actors
5.00
Mafia-style groups
1.00
Criminal networks
6.50
State-embedded actors
6.50
Foreign actors
6.00
Political leadership and governance
6.00
Government transparency and accountability
5.00
International cooperation
6.00
National policies and laws
6.50
Judicial system and detention
7.00
Law enforcement
4.50
Territorial integrity
6.00
Anti-money laundering
5.50
Economic regulatory capacity
2.00
Victim and witness support
2.50
Prevention
4.00
Non-state actors
5.00
Political leadership and governance
6.00
Government transparency and accountability
5.00
International cooperation
6.00
National policies and laws
6.50
Judicial system and detention
7.00
Law enforcement
4.50
Territorial integrity
6.00
Anti-money laundering
5.50
Economic regulatory capacity
2.00
Victim and witness support
2.50
Prevention
4.00
Non-state actors
5.00
St. Kitts and Nevis serves as a waypoint as well as a destination country for human trafficking, primarily for a relatively small forced-labour and sexual-exploitation market, with victims often coming from other countries in the Caribbean. There is little evidence of human smuggling in the country, although some reports suggest St. Kitts and Nevis may be used as a transit point for such operations.
St. Kitts and Nevis is also a destination and transit country for illegal arms, mostly trafficked into the country hidden in commercial shipping vessels from the United States. Internally, illegal arms are smuggled into St. Kitts and Nevis, mainly to meet the demands coming from local gangs. However, an amnesty offered in 2019 led to these groups cooperating with authorities and handing over guns, which resulted in a drop in the homicide rate in the country.
Although there is no evidence to suggest a flora-crime market exists in St. Kitts and Nevis, illegal fishing and sea-turtle poaching do take place on the islands, albeit the scale may be too small for these to constitute a criminal market. While there is no information available to indicate the presence of a non-renewables criminal market, there is some risk of the purchase of precious metals and gems facilitating money laundering.
St. Kitts and Nevis’s strategic geographic location and its regular direct flights to the United Kingdom make the country a key trans-shipment hub for drug shipments originating in South America on their way to the US and Europe. This has led to significant growth in the cocaine market, with foreign actors controlling the most pervasive criminal economy in the country and local groups organizing transport and logistics. Local cocaine consumption is very limited. Cannabis is decriminalized for recreational, religious and medicinal use, with reports suggesting the vast majority of the domestic crop is consumed locally. Arguably, the drug represents the most valuable market in the country. There is no evidence to suggest that other drug markets, either heroin or synthetic drugs, exist in St. Kitts and Nevis.
While there is no evidence of mafia-style groups operating in St. Kitts and Nevis, criminal markets seem to be controlled by loose criminal networks and small gangs, all of which tend to mostly operate around the country’s borders and have links to South American crime organizations.
State actors are actively involved in enabling money laundering in the country, a crime that is also facilitated by the Citizen by Investment Programme, which has provided organized crime groups with the opportunity to purchase local passports. In addition, some foreign nationals who choose St. Kitts and Nevis as a holiday or residential destination are involved in drug trafficking, with Venezuelans known to be overseeing cocaine shipments.
Although authorities in St. Kitts and Nevis have been somewhat successful in curbing violence, the use of the country as a safe haven for money laundering is still considered a considerable challenge to governance, particularly due to the country’s strong bank-secrecy laws and lack of transparency when it comes to legal entities. In addition, the country’s Citizen by Investment Programme, which allows travel to 140 countries, including Canada, the United Kingdom and the European Union, without a visa, is believed to facilitate systematic corruption and fraud. Nevertheless, St. Kitts and Nevis has a set of anti-corruption laws in place, which for the most part appear to be enforced adequately. Assessments also point to fair transparency in governance. Although legislation on freedom of information has been passed rather recently in the country, in 2018, it is still to be institutionalized.
St. Kitts and Nevis has signed and ratified a number of international treaties pertaining to organized crime. The country is also open to international cooperation, as illustrated by the programmes currently in place, funded by the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union, to improve law-enforcement and intelligence-gathering and -analysis capacities. National laws also cover crimes related to organized crime, although many pieces of legislation need revising.
St. Kitts and Nevis’s justice system seems to be independent and not affected by high levels of corruption, although investigations and successful prosecutions against organized crime groups are still rare. The penitentiary system, however, suffers a number of challenges, including overcrowding, mainly due to high numbers of inmates in pre-trial detention. Although St. Kitts and Nevis has no anti-organized-crime unit, with the exception of one for narcotics, the police boast good levels of public trust. Nevertheless, there are indications of law enforcement in the country being influenced by the political class. Despite the natural vulnerabilities to organized crime it faces, St. Kitts and Nevis is broadly capable to police its borders.
St. Kitts and Nevis has an operational financial intelligence unit, along with established law-enforcement cooperation mechanisms related to money laundering and a mechanism for the identification and forfeiture of assets obtained illegally. Despite the laws and procedures in place, not a single charge related to money laundering has been brought up in the country since 2015. The country is also vulnerable to money laundering because of the lack of transparency regarding the beneficial ownership of legal entities and its strict secrecy laws. Thus, the overall risk of money laundering is very high. In addition, doing business in St. Kitts and Nevis is considered to be very difficult due to challenges in registering property, low access to credit and high taxes.
Victim and witness protection in St. Kitts and Nevis is minimal, although these are both considered essential due to the relatively high number of murders of witnesses. The country has, however, several prevention programmes aimed at tackling the root causes of crime, including the social environment in which the perpetrators live, which have yielded positive results in reducing the homicide rate over time. Civil society organizations also play a key role in crime prevention, particularly in areas including human trafficking, drug consumption, arms trading and law-enforcement training. Although the Constitution guarantees freedom of expression, the state owns the only television channel in the country and the opposition is said to face some restrictions to its access. Defamation is a criminal offence and some journalists reportedly self-censor in order to avoid pressure from the authorities.
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The criminal markets score is represented by the pyramid base size and the criminal actors score is represented by the pyramid height, on a scale ranging from 1 to 10. The resilience score is represented by the panel height, which can be identified by the side of the panel.
This report was funded in part by a grant from the United States Department of State.
ENACT is funded by the European Union and implemented by the Institute for Security Studies and INTERPOL, in affiliation with the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.
The opinions, findings and conclusions stated herein are those of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime and do not necessarily reflect those of the United States Department of State.