A re­cent Unit­ed King­dom Home Of­fice re­port es­ti­mat­ing that 186 gangs with ap­prox­i­mate­ly 1,750 mem­bers are op­er­at­ing in Trinidad and To­ba­go has reignit­ed dis­cus­sion about the coun­try’s crime sit­u­a­tion. How­ev­er, ex­perts are say­ing the doc­u­ment should be viewed with­in its in­tend­ed con­text.

The June 2026 re­port, ti­tled Coun­try Pol­i­cy and In­for­ma­tion Note (CPIN): Gangs and Or­gan­ised Crime in Trinidad and To­ba­go, stat­ed that gangs were linked to 43.7 per cent of mur­ders in 2024 and about one-third of mur­ders in 2025. It al­so iden­ti­fied ma­jor gang group­ings, in­clud­ing Mus­lims and Ras­ta City, as key play­ers in crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty, while high­light­ing the growth of splin­ter gangs and in­de­pen­dent crim­i­nal net­works.

How­ev­er, crim­i­nol­o­gist Dr Randy Seep­er­sad said yes­ter­day that the re­port was not in­tend­ed to serve as an in­dict­ment of T&T or as a trav­el ad­vi­so­ry.