JAYFORCE

VICE News visited the slums of Port of Spain and spoke with police, activists, community leaders, and gangsters to understand the country’s decade-plus spike in killings [more than tripling over the past 15 years]. Many of the murders are attributed to ruthless and politically connected street gangs who control territories that are sometimes no larger than a city block. The gangs fight over lucrative government contracts meant to provide social services and combat unemployment.

But gang violence is just where the problems start. Trinidad has become an important stop for drugs headed to West Africa and the United States. The “big fish” keeping and growing the country into a mega narco-state — the political and business elite.