Day Three : Tivoli Under Siege, What Led To This ?
Jamaican Police have an arrest warrant for “Dudus” who allegedly leads one of Jamaica’s drug gangs and is sought by U.S. authorities on drug and arms trafficking charges but residents of West Kingston neighborhoods have set up barricades to prevent the police for entering their community Tivoli Gardens to execute the order.
Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke 41 is accused of being the leader of the notorious Shower Posse, which US authorities say operates an international drugs and guns network. Some residents have protested in defence of Mr Coke, The gang has also been blamed for numerous murders in Jamaica and the US.
Mr Coke is thought to be hiding in Tivoli Gardens, one of Kingston’s poorest districts, which police say is controlled by his supporters. The BBC’s Nick Davis in Kingston says they are believed to be heavily armed and ready to defend the man they call “the president”, more from this source….
United States Attorney Southern District of New York, MANHATTAN U.S. ATTORNEY CHARGES JAMAICA-BASED DRUG KINGPIN WITH NARCOTICS AND FIREARMS TRAFFICKING CRIMES; PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, JOHN P. GILBRIDE, Special Agentin-Charge of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration’s New York Field Division (“DEA”), and JAVIER F. PEÑA, Special Agent-in-Charge of DEA’s Caribbean Division, announced that charges were unsealed today against CHRISTOPHER MICHAEL COKE, a/k/a “Michael Christopher Coke,” a/k/a “Paul Christopher Scott,” a/k/a “Presi,” a/k/a “General,” a/k/a “President,” a/k/a “Duddus,” a/k/a “Shortman.” According to the indictment, Mr Coke has controlled the Tivoli Gardens area of Kingston since the early 1990s.
COKE is charged with conspiracy to distribute marijuana and cocaine and conspiracy to illegally traffic in firearms. The United States has formally requested through diplomatic channels that Jamaican authorities arrest COKE and extradite him to the Southern District of New York on the U.S. charges. According to the Superseding Indictment unsealed today in Manhattan federal court:
COKE leads an international criminal organization known as the “Shower Posse,” with members in Jamaica, the United States, and other countries — which he has led since the early 1990s. At COKE’s direction and under his protection, members of his criminal organization sell marijuana and crack cocaine in the New York area and elsewhere, and send the narcotics proceeds back to COKE and his co-conspirators.
COKE and his co-conspirators also arm their organization with illegally trafficked firearms. COKE has been named by the U.S. Department of Justice to the list of Consolidated Priority Organization Targets (“CPOTs”), which includes the world’s most dangerous narcotics kingpins.
The United States Government has flayed the Bruce Golding administration over Jamaica’s handling of the extradition request for west Kingston strongman Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke. In an unusually caustic report on Jamaica in its annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Report , the Barack Obama administration made it clear it was not satisfied with Kingston’s handling of the extradition request and charged that the Golding government was not holding to the rules.
“While cooperation between (the) Government of Jamaica (GOJ) and United States Government law-enforcement agencies remained strong, delays in proceeding with the significant extradition request for a major alleged narcotics and firearms trafficker who is reported to have ties to the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), and subsequent delays in other extradition requests, have called into question Kingston’s commitment to law-enforcement cooperation with the US,” the report claimed.
DUDUS: The man who holds a nation hostage … Published: Sunday May 23, 2010 Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke is not one of those flashy dons who one sees at every dance or nightclub ‘flossing’ with bottles of high-priced liquor and scores of scantily dressed girls in his entourage. Unlike other dons, such as the late William ‘Willie Haggart’ Moore, Dudus will party quietly, and most times, you won’t even know that he is at the dance.
He is also not one of those dons who crave the attention of the media while flaunting power (cross him and you end up in a trunk). You would not find him following in the footsteps of the incarcerated Donald ‘Zekes’ Phipps, who would pose for the television cameras and boast about what he had done or would be doing.
“You know that I don’t talk to the media,” is the stock response from Dudus on the few occasions journalists have been able to get close enough to ask him questions.But none of the numerous dons, strongmen or area leaders Jamaica has produced has wielded the influence of Coke – a man people call ‘Shortman’, ‘Presi’, ‘Bossy’, or just plain ‘Dudus’.
A successful businessman, the company, Incomparable Enterprise, for which he was director up to December 2002, received millions of dollars in state contracts annually. His other company, Presidential Click, stages the biggest weekly street dance – ‘Passa Passa’- in Jamaica, plus what is now a dancehall calendar event,’Champions In Action’.
Coke, according to key police sources, manages a network of criminal associates across the island, the Caribbean, North America and the United Kingdom. Dudus is benefactor to many persons who depend on him to send their children to school, buy food and, most important, settle disputes beyond Jamaican borders
Source:pibillwarner.wordpress.com
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