On Wednesday, 15 July 2026, senior Caribbean law enforcement and anti-crime officials gathered for the annual general and steering group meetings of the Asset Recovery Interagency Network of the Caribbean (ARIN-CARIB), where they laid out a coordinated regional plan to crack down on illicit proceeds from transnational organized crime and strengthen cross-border asset recovery frameworks.
Shalimar Hack, Guyana’s Director of Public Prosecutions and ARIN-CARIB’s 2026 president, opened the summit held under the theme “From Tracing to Transformation: Building An Asset Recovery-Ready Caribbean” by emphasizing that binding regional legal frameworks must embed mandatory inter-agency cooperation to speed up asset recovery investigations.
Hack explained that fragmented regulatory structures and siloed agency operations slow progress in targeting criminal wealth. “When all relevant stakeholders are aligned under clear laws that support collaborative action, and understand the critical role of a unified approach to cutting off criminal proceeds, we can sustain an effective fight against transnational criminal activity,” she told attendees. She added that a regional interagency network is foundational to upholding rule of law across individual Caribbean jurisdictions and the region as a whole.
Moving beyond traditional anti-crime approaches, Hack stressed that securing criminal convictions alone is not enough to dismantle organized crime groups. “If we do not undermine the financial foundations that allow these networks to operate, we have not truly solved the problem of transnational crime,” she said. Hack called for a systemic transformation of Caribbean asset recovery practices: authorities must not only successfully trace illegal assets and strip criminal networks of their illicit gains, but also repurpose those seized resources for public benefit across member states.
Atlee Rodney, Deputy Executive Director of the Barbados-based Regional Security System (RSS) – ARIN-CARIB’s coordinating secretariat – outlined the ongoing work to advance these regional goals, noting that RSS is partnering closely with the network’s steering committee and key global strategic partners to update Caribbean legal frameworks for cross-border cooperation. Major partners include the European Union’s Europe Latin America Programme of Assistance against Transnational Organised Crime and the Inter-American Development Bank, which provide technical and financial support for regulatory reform.
Rodney, a former Police Commissioner of Antigua and Barbuda, noted that a top priority is updating national legislative and policy frameworks across Caribbean countries to match the evolving sophistication of transnational criminal enterprises. Current key initiatives include drafting a regional Model Agreement for Joint Investigations, conducting reviews of domestic legal rules governing international cooperation, and strengthening mutual legal assistance mechanisms to enable faster, more effective exchange of information and evidence across national borders.