The confluence of crime: mapping the nexus between arms and drug trafficking in the Caribbean

The Caribbean region has emerged as an epicentre of transnational organised crime, where firearms are not only tools of protection but also increasingly function as both currency and commodities within the drug trade. Despite limited network analyses on the interrelationship between arms and drug trafficking in the region, existing literature suggests their interconnection remains to be empirically tested. As a step in this direction, this research undertakes a quantitative analysis of regional seizures of drugs and firearms based on an open-source dataset, complemented by anecdotal evidence from available regional jurisprudence to assess whether the two commodities are frequently seized jointly, thus indicating an interconnectivity of the markets and various trends observed. The analysis of 1,098 seizure instances from press articles and 107 court cases reveals a moderate correlation, pointing to a possible link between firearm and drug seizures, with some countries acting as ‘hotspots’ while others exhibiting only weak associations.