Rival gangs 2Drilly and Grays Farm Killers back in police crosshairs

Antigua police have renewed focus on two rival youth gangs as tensions resurface nearly two years after a 2024 truce. Shootings are up 33% this year.

Antigua police step up pressure on rival gangs as 2024 truce frays

Antigua's Criminal Investigations Department has intensified its focus on two rival youth gangs following signs that hostilities between 2Drilly and the Grays Farm Killers are re-emerging, the Antigua Observer reports, nearly two years after the groups formally agreed to end their feud.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Lisborn Michael, head of the CID, named both groups while addressing recent youth violence and the ongoing Operation Restore Confidence. "As far as I am aware, there are two gangs, the Grays Farm Killers and the 2Drilly gang," Michael said, confirming that police were "vigorously targeting" individuals believed to be involved.

Michael linked several of the country's most recent shootings to tensions that flared during J'Ouvert celebrations. Although Carnival passed largely without incident, he said an altercation on J'Ouvert morning appeared to have set off a subsequent wave of violence. Police have since arrested and charged multiple individuals in connection with those alleged hostilities, with cases now before the courts.

The renewed friction threatens to unravel intervention efforts launched in 2024, when the Government publicly identified the two groups as rival factions "at war." Officials had warned at the time that the feud had spread into secondary schools, with threats circulating on social media and violent reprisals between the groups becoming routine. Prime Minister Gaston Browne subsequently held meetings with members of both gangs to discuss ending the violence and offered employment, training and rehabilitation opportunities.

A truce was announced in September 2024, and both groups later took part in a peace football match designed to consolidate the agreement.

The resurgence comes against a backdrop of rising gun violence. Police recorded 24 shooting incidents between January and July this year, up from 18 during the same period in 2025 — a 33 per cent increase. Homicides rose from nine to 11 over the same stretch, even as overall reported crime declined.

Operation Restore Confidence, launched on 15 August as a direct response to gun violence, repeat offending and suspected gang activity, is scheduled to run until 29 August. Twenty-two people have been arrested and charged under the operation, among them suspects accused of firearms offences and other serious crimes. Roughly half had reportedly already been arrested and charged on multiple occasions earlier this year.

Officers have also conducted searches, executed warrants and recovered firearms and suspected stolen property during the operation, though the quantities seized have not been disclosed.

Source: Antigua Observer