US authorities have trumpeted the foiling of an alleged plot to attack John F. Kennedy airport in New York as a significant success in the fight against terrorism. But thwarting the fanatical, and somewhat fantastical, plans of four men aged in their fifties and sixties can hardly be regarded as a serious blow to the global jihad.

One law-enforcement source told The New York Times that the alleged plotters had neither explosives nor money, and described Russell Defreitas, 63, who was arrested in Brooklyn, as “a sad sack”.

What the arrests do highlight is America’s continuing concern that militant Islam could gain a foothold in the Caribbean and that al-Qaeda could use the region to launch attacks on the United States. There is some confusion about who, if anyone, the alleged JFK plotters were linked to.

The authorities said that the would-be bombers had tried to forge a connection with Jamaat al-Muslimeen, a group of converts to Islam led by Yasin Abu Bakr, which staged a violent coup attempt in Trinidad and Tobago in 1990.

The group has been regarded in recent years, however, as being more involved in criminal activity than terrorism. It has not commented on the allegation of a link to the alleged plot.

It is also a Sunni Muslim group, yet Trinidadian newspapers have reported that the two men arrested there in connection with the JFK plot, Kareem Ibrahim and Abdul Kadir, were imams of Shia mosques in Trinidad and Guyana. The fourth man charged by the US, a Guyanese called Abdul Nur, is also said to be Shia. He has not yet been arrested.

Of much more interest to American counter-terrorism agencies is Adnan G. El-Shukrijumah, 32, a Saudi-born al-Qaeda operative believed to be in hiding in the region. A $5 million (£2.5 million) reward has been offered for information leading to his capture.

El-Shukrijumah lived in America for 15 years and trained as a pilot. The FBI says that he speaks perfect English and has a Guyanese passport but may try to enter the US with Saudi, Canadian or Trinidadian documents.

Britain, with its ties to the Caribbean, also has reasons to be concerned about Islamist militancy in the region.

Abdullah el-Faisal, the extremist preacher, was deported to Jamaica last month after serving a prison sentence for inciting hatred. Faisal, 43, born Trevor William Forrest, was jailed in 2003 but recordings of his inflammatory sermons continued to circulate. Germaine Lindsay, the Jamaican-born 7/7 attacker, was particularly influenced by them.

Richard Reid, the Briton in jail in the US for trying to blow up an airliner with a bomb hidden in his shoe, was from an Afro-Caribbean background and was converted to radical Islam while in prison.

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