Unlike Caribbean islands with broad firearms prohibitions, the U.S. Virgin Islands’ gun runners don’t need dark-of-night smuggling routes and hidden compartments. They can use regular airline baggage.
A blind spot at the intersection of local law, airline regulation, and federal enforcement makes it all too easy to illegally bring a gun into the territory. Passengers are required to inform the airline of a firearm in their baggage. The airline, however, is not required to share that information with local or federal law enforcement, officials confirmed this week.
Being outside the U.S. Customs Zone, federal officers monitor mainland-bound baggage more closely than incoming bags.
Federal officials acknowledged the gap Wednesday, saying the airline is required to follow regulations for safe and legal firearm transport but is not required to report it further. Customs and Border Protection said such notification was helpful but it doesn’t always happen. And not every incoming bag is run through a metal detector.
Lt. Gov. Tregenza Roach suggested Monday that many weapons arrive this way. Antonio Emanuel, executive director of the Office of Gun Violence Prevention, agreed.
Despite multiple signs in the arrival area warning that the firearm must be declared, it’s just as easy to walk on by, Emanuel said. A law-abiding person proceeds directly to the airport’s police substation to declare their weapon, while someone with ill intentions simply collects their bags and walks out of the airport with a firearm soon to be sold on the black market.
“I don’t know where the disconnect is between where you check it in legally in the States and when you land,” Emanuel said. “You could legally purchase a gun in Virginia at a gun auction and then go to the airport and say, ‘Hey, I’m declaring my Glock 40 and my Smith & Wesson.’ Fill out all the paperwork and you’ve met your federal guidelines for traveling with a weapon.”
The Virgin Islands Port Authority did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Even law-abiding gun importers might find declaring the weapon difficult. The office to declare the firearm may not be open for very late flights, Emanuel said.
“The legal person says, ‘I’ll call the police department in the morning. I’ll take my gun down to the police station and get them to make sure I have it.’ But most folks, the illegal folks, they’ll keep moving,” he said.
The ease of acquiring an illegal firearm in the territory has led to countless arrests, very often at traffic stops for much less serious violations. This past Friday and Saturday alone, the Virgin Islands Police Department arrested four St. Thomas men for alleged illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition in separate incidents, according to court records.
Interisland travel is also rife with unlawful firearm transport, he said.
“You can move between St. Thomas and St. Croix without any restrictions. They say you are supposed to declare it, but I know guys be traveling from St. Croix back and forth with weapons on the plane and they just don’t say anything. They put it in their little carry thing or their backpack and go on with it. And nobody’s there checking it. I would wish that VIPA or Customs or something would have a dog search and search the commuter terminals periodically,” Emanuel said. “Every time I talk to VIPA about it, they say, ‘Oh, that’s Customs’ job.’ Every time I talk to Customs about it they say it’s a local job. Everybody’s pointing their finger at everybody else but nobody’s doing the work.”
While it’s Emanuel’s job to prevent gun violence, success wasn’t always easy.
In recent days, 31-year-old Wahili James and Samuel Rivera, 34, were shot and killed at the Luna Bar on St. Croix, and two others were injured. On Wednesday, St. Croix Deputy Chief of Police Naomi Joseph said that the killing of 20-year-old Amani Daley, whose body was found in the bush Tuesday evening near Profit Hills, was connected to the two earlier homicides. On June 12, 15-year-old Tre’Vante Etienne was shot and killed in the afternoon at the basketball court in Savan on St. Thomas.
During a Government House briefing Monday, Roach referenced two other recent shootings.
On Sunday, a 16-year-old was shot multiple times while riding his motorbike near the Omar Brown Fire Station on St. Thomas, and another person was shot in the arm at the Walter I. M. Hodge housing community on St. Croix. Both were taken to the hospital for treatment. On Tuesday afternoon, 23-year-old Asani Henry was shot and killed in the Hospital Ground area of St. Thomas. Later that day, 55-year-old Fitzroy Wattley was found dead from gunshot wounds in the Sanchez Town part of Estate Bovoni.
Separately, police responded on Monday to reports of gunshots in the Whim area of St. Croix. Rusiel Encarnacion, 45, had been shot multiple times and died after being taken to Luis Hospital. During Wednesday’s press briefing, Joseph noted that several of the people killed were “known to law enforcement” or had recently gotten out of prison.
“These things come in waves, it seems,” Emanuel said. “This month is Gun Violence Prevention Month, ironically.”
The Gun Violence Prevention Office had planned two peace rallies, one in St. Thomas on June 24 in Emancipation Garden, and one in St. Croix at Canegata Ballpark on June 30, both at 6:30 p.m.
“It was just for the community to come out and talk about stuff, but now it’s probably going to be a hot topic now because of all the shootings we’ve had recently,” he said.
On June 8, a St. Thomas man arriving on a flight from Miami allegedly admitted to the Department of Homeland Security that he had 500 rounds of undeclared ammunition in his bag. How he was able to get through airport security in Florida was not clear, but the seemingly casual nature of his alleged admission underlies the depth of the territory’s black market gun culture.
In a 2022 interview, Emanuel lamented a swath of Virgin Islands youth who embraced a live-fast, die-young lifestyle, where violence, jail time, and a lack of community responsibility were the norm.
Preventing young people from gun violence, Emanuel said, required constant parental and community engagement.
By all accounts, Tre’Vante Etienne was a beloved student-athlete. He was active in the programs designed to keep young people away from gun violence but that failed to keep him from being a victim.
“I urge parents to search their children’s rooms. It sounds kind of Gestapo-ish, but every once in a while they should go through their kid’s stuff,” Emanuel said. “There are warning signs. Sometimes we bury our heads in the sand and we miss it.”
Emanuel’s office visits all the schools with anti-bullying and leadership campaigns to help young people learn to communicate better and manage their personal behavior.
For adults, preventing gun violence can require cooler heads prevailing.
On several occasions, Emanuel’s office has been the negotiator of peace, going well beyond its role of skill sharing with kids and government employees.
Someone will be robbed and rather than react with gunfire, they’ll reach out to the Office of Gun Violence Prevention, Emanuel said.
“They’ll tell us who did it. We’ll find them and bargain with them to get the guy’s stuff back before there’s a retaliatory attack. And we’ve done probably about 20 of those the past two years. And I know that’s saved lives, multiple lives,” he said. “They know somebody made a dumb mistake. They know some young person stuck them up not knowing who they really were.”
The vigilante severity of the situation couldn’t be more stark, he said.
The message is loud and clear: “‘I don’t want to kill him. Bring my chain back and I won’t kill him,’” Emanuel said.“ Every once in a while we find out that something is going to happen and we intervene before it happens. But most of the homicides are emotionally based. They’re retaliatory, they’re domestic violence-based, and we’re not there when it happens. But sometimes we do. Sometimes we get a call.”
Perhaps most important to preventing things from getting that far is employment, Emanuel said, especially of recently incarcerated people.
“I know it sounds kind of risky, but those people coming out of jail, let’s give them a job. Let’s give them a chance,” he said.
Lastly, it was vital that Virgin Islanders trust and share information with the police, Emanuel said.
“We have so many people in the territory who know what’s going on. If a crime occurs, you have to trust the police are going to do the right thing with the information. If you don’t trust the police then we can’t solve the crimes,” he said. “If you see something, say something.”
