Drug dealers who sit on street corners enticing young people are the Devil – using glitz and glamour to recruit their followers, according to boxer Charles “Killa” Whittaker.

And the world number two says that people like him have a responsibility to preach “good propaganda” to children before it becomes too late.

Whittaker, 37, recently became the number two ranked junior middleweight boxer in the world and will fight for the top spot next year.

But he says that he must become a role model and help the young Caymanian avoid the perils that may lay ahead.

Whittaker says the recent spate of murders that saw five gangland-style executions in a little over a week was a sad time in the history of Cayman.

He added: “When the young people were killing each other it was a sad time in our country’s history. Some of these young people I knew them, I knew their families.

“What we have to do in this country is we have to take the people that are doing things such as myself and influence the young people.

“Nobody influences young people as much as sports stars do. More so than Kings or Queens. If there was a war going on in Africa and Pele came to play ball they would stop the war. If Manny Pacquiao is fighting then there will be no crime reported in the whole of the Philippines.

“We have to take people like me and make them larger than life here at home. We have to use people like me as good propaganda and set an example.

“Young people are influenced by the glitz and glamour and what is happening is they are getting attracted to the glitz and glamour of the guy sitting on the street corner selling drugs.

“The drug man continues to lay traps and he continues to work and encourage them. He gets the guys in the gangs to come to him and when he says, man, check me later. When later comes, he’s right there.

“We have to set traps. We have to draw them towards positivity because people who are in the wrong way of life, practicing the wrong things are always there to recruit, like the devil. He’s like a hungry lion seeking out who he can next devour. They are always working.”

Despite reaching the highest ranking of his career – and with a world title shot just around the corner – Whittaker says it was the people of Cayman who doubted his ability.

He said: “If the world won’t come to you, you have to go out to the world and I have done that in my achievements. I am number two right now in the world.

“When I first got started the only people who told me that I couldn’t make it were Caymanian born. We are a nation with a slave mentality.  They will complain about expatriates but they will open the door for them before they open the door for me and that is a sad fact.

“These people are busy, busy complaining. They say, I’m not going to support Charles, I’m not paying  $50 to watch Charles fight. But they will go down to the Ritz-Carlton and buy two drinks and pay $50.

“We are a prejudiced society. We are class prejudiced, ‘we are who your family is’ prejudiced.”