Mr. Yves Paillard, Anguilla’s AG Mr. John McKendrick QC, Mr. Jan Spaans,
Ms. Erica Edwards & Commissioner of RAPF Mr. Paul Morrison
Criminal Justice officials in Anguilla, French St. Martin and Dutch St. Maarten have discussed and agreed on several matters relating to border control and cooperation – notwithstanding their diverse regional and international territorial and legal systems.
They met in the Executive Council Chambers in Anguilla on Tuesday, June 12, where they later held a joint press conference. It was the first such meeting of the three parties who have pledged to meet again in the future.
The officials from Anguilla were: Mr. John McKendrick QC, Attorney General; Mr. Paul Morrison, Commissioner of the Royal Anguilla Police Force; and Ms. Erica Edwards, Crown Counsel. From Dutch St. Maarten: Mr. Jan Spaans, Solicitor General; and Mr. Felix Richards, Inspector, KPSM; and from French St. Martin: Mr. Yves Paillard, Prosecutor; Madame Nathalie Chauvire, Gendarmerie Nationale; and Major Jean-Luc Deras, Chief of St. Martin Immigration Police.
Anguilla’s Attorney General, Mr. McKendrick, told the media representatives about the discussions. “We are very pleased to formally meet. I think probably for the first time we have had a meeting of all senior police officers, prosecutors and criminal justice investigators,” he said. “We have had a very productive morning of discussions. We discussed information-sharing in the areas of criminal justice; our mutual legal assistance request system; intelligence cooperation and evidential cooperation; and we briefly touched on the consequences for effective criminal justice and law enforcement cooperation given the possibility of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union.
“We also briefly discussed our respective jurisdictions responses to Hurricane Irma and how that impacted on the criminal justice system; and we briefly discussed our preparedness, now that we have entered into the next hurricane season, from a criminal justice perspective. I think what we all recognised is that a key priority for all three jurisdictions is the effective detection and tracking of those involved in gun crime; and we spent a considerable amount of time looking at how our systems for tracking those involved in gun crime, and forensic information sharing and other wider information sharing, both regionally and internationally in respect of hand guns, can be more effective. It may be the case that we will meet again soon to deal with that.”
The Anguilla Attorney General continued: “I think we have also recognised that another difficulty we share is that those involved in criminal behaviour, seek to exploit our jurisdictions by moving between our three jurisdictions and also St. Christopher-Nevis. I think we have agreed that what we are able to do, more effectively going forward, is having greater information sharing regarding prison releases, arrests, charging decisions and other areas, to ensure that we are effectively appraised as possible of what is taking place in our different jurisdictions. [This means that] those involved in criminal activity cannot evade the consequences of their criminal actions by going from one jurisdiction to another. I mentioned St. Christopher-Nevis because whilst they have not been in attendance at this meeting, we have also discussed that it would be beneficial and useful if they were to be involved in any future meeting. And their information sharing should also involve that jurisdiction, given the very close connections between our three jurisdictions and St. Christopher-Nevis.”
Mr. McKendrick pointed out that there was already a huge amount of criminal justice cooperation and effective mutual legal cooperation among Anguilla, French and Dutch St. Maarten. He stressed that by their meeting cooperation had been strengthened, and that further meetings would be alternated among the three territories every six to twelve months at the highest level. The aim, he said, was to seek to deter and disrupt criminal activity as well as the financial consequences of criminal activity. This would involve cooperation among the three jurisdictions to freeze assets and return the proceeds of crime to the respective Governments.
The Solicitor General of Dutch St. Maarten, Mr Jan Spaans, said that with the three jurisdictions being so close there was a need to be effective as much as possible in maintaining their international legal assistance relationship and to fight crime by working together.
He added: “This meeting has been very useful and we should continue to meet in the future to continue that relationship not to let crime pay; and to be very fruitful as law enforcement and judicial authorities.”
Mr. Yves Paillard, the Prosecutor from French St. Martin, said he and his team, like their Dutch counterparts, were happy to be at the meeting. “We are here to share information with our colleagues,” he went on. “We would like to thank John [McKendrick] for his very good spirit of cooperation since he arrived here [in Anguilla]. We developed very good contacts with him and also with the St. Martin Prosecutor’s Office. We all share the same human rights values. We are from different countries but are here to fight criminals on our borders.
“There are no physical borders really in St. Martin/St. Maarten but borders between French St. Martin and Anguilla are very easy to cross. We therefore need to know each other and to exchange information when possible. Apart from sharing information, there may also be judicial cooperation through which we may be able to share more than information. This may include an exchange of evidence and the freezing of assets.”
Anguilla’s Commissioner of Police, Mr. Paul Morrison, said that the cooperation among Anguilla, French St. Martin and Dutch St. Maarten had been rejuvenated over the past three years. “We have regular meetings with enforcement officials every six weeks and those meetings are predominantly to share intelligence information,” he stated. “For us in Anguilla, French St. Martin and Dutch St. Maarten, the single priority that we all can agree on is gun criminality, the movement of firearms between our jurisdictions and those associated with firearms.”
Mr. Morrison described the relationships among the three jurisdictions as excellent. He emphasised that it was necessary to improve those links of intelligence sharing so that there were virtually no borders for those being pursued for gun crimes.
Following a very interactive press conference, Mr. McKendrick disclosed that one the matters agreed on was the sharing of the release dates for prisoners in Anguilla, French St. Martin and Dutch St. Maarten. “That is the kind of important information sharing that hitherto hasn’t taken place,” Mr. McKendrick added. “This is the first meeting of this nature of our three jurisdictions and we will be repeating it soon. I think we all firmly believe that this type of event, and the follow-up action, will help to keep citizens safe in our jurisdictions.”
