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  1. #1
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    Jamaicans battle over alleged drug lord

    Jamaicans battle over alleged drug lord

    State of emergency after attacks by supporters of man sought by U.S.

    KINGSTON, Jamaica - Jamaica's government declared a state of emergency in parts of its capital city Kingston Sunday after shooting and firebomb attacks on police stations by supporters of an alleged drug lord who faces extradition to the United States.

    The emergency covered the West Kingston and St. Andrews districts of the capital where gunmen fired on two police stations and set fire to another.

    At least one policeman was injured.

    Kingston police on Sunday urged Christopher "Dudus" Coke, who the government is seeking under a U.S. extradition request, even as tension grew behind barricades erected by his supporters to protect him.

    The U.S., Canada and Britain have issued travel alerts, warning of possible violence and unrest, and most Jamaicans are steering clear of downtown Kingston entirely.

    Apartment slum now a fortress
    In a gritty section of the capital, defiant followers of Christopher "Dudus" Coke, a Jamaican "don" who is widely suspected of controlling gunmen in West Kingston's Tivoli Gardens, have transformed the slum into a virtual fortress cut off by trashed cars and barbed wire.

    People in the community quickly started preparing for war.

    Police say Tivoli Gardens residents have stockpiled powerful weapons, including a .50-caliber sniper rifle with armor-piercing bullets. Others allegedly have stolen law-abiding residents' cell phones to prevent them from alerting authorities to Coke's movements.

    So far, violence around the barricaded slum has been sporadic. On Wednesday, an armored vehicle was sprayed by gunfire shortly after forcing a trashed car from an intersection. No security forces were hit, but the Jamaica Defense Force quickly called up the army reserves.

    Hundreds of residents, many dressed in white, marched peacefully outside a police station Thursday with signs reading: "No Dudus, No Jamaica!"

    A sign affixed to a scruffy dog's back read: "Jesus died for us, we will die for Dudus."

    The standoff has intensified for nearly a week, since Prime Minister Bruce Golding reversed his long-standing refusal to extradite Coke to the U.S.

    Aka 'President'
    "The police are publicly calling on Christopher Coke, otherwise called 'Dudus,' 'Short Man,' and 'President,' to hand himself over," said a statement from police high command Sunday. "The security forces wish to make it very clear that they view the barricading as an act of cowardice on the part of selfish criminal elements, mainly Mr. Coke."

    So far, violence has been sporadic in the impoverished community, where a 2001 standoff between gunmen and security forces tracking down fugitives killed 25 civilians, as well as a soldier and a constable.

    Coke is described as one of the world's most dangerous drug lords by the U.S. Justice Department. He has ties of loyalty to the ruling Jamaica Labour Party and holds significant sway over the West Kingston area represented in Parliament by Golding, who stalled Coke's extradition request for months with claims that the U.S. indictment relied on illegal wiretap evidence.

    Golding's fight against the extradition strained relations with Washington, which questioned the Caribbean country's reliability as an ally in the fight against drugs. His handling of the matter, particularly his hiring of a U.S. firm to lobby Washington to drop the extradition request, provoked an outcry that threatened his political career.

    Coke, who typically avoids the limelight, has remained silent. He faces life in prison if convicted on drug and weapons charges filed against him in New York.

    Family business
    Coke allegedly leads one of Jamaica's gangs, which control politicized slums known as "garrisons." Political parties created the gangs in the 1970s to rustle up votes. The gangs have since turned to drug trafficking, but each gang remains closely tied to a political party.

    Coke was born into Jamaica's gangland. His father was the leader of the notorious Shower Posse gang, a cocaine-trafficking band with agents in Jamaica and the United States that began operating in the 1980s and was named for its members' tendency to spray victims with bullets.

    The son took over from the father, and expanded the gang into selling marijuana and crack cocaine in the New York area and elsewhere, U.S. authorities allege.

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37306034/ns ... -americas/
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  2. #2
    Senior Member swatchick's Avatar
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    The Shower Posse is also in Toronto. There were big drug raids in the city and many of them were rounded up. Toronto Police contacted immigration immediately and are working to get them deported unless they were born in Canada.
    Actually they are behind most of the homicides and shootings in Toronto which occur in the Jamaican part of town. Many of those gang members from Jamaica who either fled prison or are wanted used to flee to Toronto. The police were catching them and when they started getting more of them immigration stepped in and made it harder for them to come into the country illegally.
    They also have alot of them in Broward County here in south Florida. Many are caught for various crimes and you see quite a few with immigration holds in the county jail but not as many as the Haitians.
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    Background articles and information:
    http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-198926-jamaica.html
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    Jamaica gangsters attack police to defend drug lord wanted in US

    Violence broke out in Jamaica over the request to extradite Christopher 'Dudus' Coke to the US on charges of drug trafficking. Mr. Coke has barricaded himself in a Kingston slum, and his supporters are attacking police stations across the capital.


    A riot police officer takes aim during an outbreak of violence in West Kingston, Jamaica, in this video grab taken Sunday. Jamaica declared a state of emergency in two parishes of its capital, Kingston, on Sunday after shooting and firebomb attacks on police stations by suspected supporters of Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, an alleged drug lord who faces extradition to the US.
    Reuters TV / Reuters

    By Ben Hancock, Correspondent / May 24, 2010

    Kingston was in a state of emergency Monday morning after gangsters fired on four police stations in the Jamaican capital, lashing out against a move to extradite an alleged drug lord to the United States.

    One of the stations was set ablaze, an officer was wounded, and a civilian was killed in attacks around the city. Meanwhile, supporters of Christopher “Dudusâ€
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    Dozens killed in Jamaican violence
    By the CNN Wire Staff
    May 25, 2010 2:23 p.m. EDT

    Unrest spreads in Jamaica over alleged drug lord

    (CNN) -- At least 27 people are dead in Jamaica's capital amid an all-out police assault on a suspected drug lord's stronghold, a protracted push that began Monday and persisted Tuesday, the government reported.

    Security forces have been fighting people who want to prevent the extradition to the United States of Christopher "Dudus" Coke, who was charged last year in U.S. federal court with conspiracy to distribute marijuana and cocaine and with conspiracy to traffic in firearms illegally.

    Twenty-six of the dead were civilians and one was a Jamaican Defense Force member; 25 civilians and six defense force members were injured as security forces battled criminal elements in Tivoli Gardens and Denham Town, officials said.

    The government said those killed were mostly males and their bodies were recovered from areas close to barricades, building entrances and gullies coursing through Tivoli Gardens. It said 211 people, including six women, were detained.

    Security forces have confiscated firearms, ammunition, binoculars, army fatigues and ballistic vests and are conducting searches, the government said.



    Video: U.S.: Violence won't stop extradition
    The fighting has paralyzed the metropolis.

    Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding has declared a state of emergency in some parts of Kingston. Schools are closed in the capital, and at one point some flights were canceled, said U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley.

    "Our embassy in Kingston is closed today and we will continue to make that evaluation on a day-to-day basis based on events on the ground in Kingston," Crowley said.

    "The United States government and the government of Jamaica continue to work collaboratively to ensure the safety and security of our citizens as we also counter illicit trafficking."

    Golding has requested that public defender, Earl Witter, and political ombudsman, Dr. Herro Blair, visit Tivoli Gardens on Tuesday to assess the security operation and determine the number of casualties, the government said.

    The Red Cross also will provide support, including ambulances and medical care to the injured, it said.

    Coke maintains a heroic reputation in the Kingston slums, with some people comparing him to Robin Hood, Jesus and one-time Colombian kingpin Pablo Escobar. He has helped the community by handing out food, sending children to school and building medical centers.

    Experts: Accused Jamaican drug lord akin to Robin Hood

    But drug enforcement officials said he deserves to be classified as one of the world's most dangerous drug lords.

    "He is the head of an organization, a cartel or a syndicate that has a global impact and also has a direct impact on the United States," said Michael Braun, a former chief of operations for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

    On Monday, residents said that government helicopters dropped explosives into the area near Coke's stronghold, though it was not clear if he was there.

    The attack came after residents blocked roads in the area to restrict access to police and military. The violence then spread to Spanish Town, about 20 minutes outside the capital, where armed thugs blocked a major road and a bridge that serves as a link between Montego Bay and Kingston, police said.

    Looting also occurred in downtown Kingston.

    Monday's unrest followed a Sunday night shooting that left two police officers dead and six others wounded near Norman Manley International Airport outside Kingston, police said.

    Coke's lawyers were to meet with the charge d'affaires officer at the U.S. Embassy in Kingston. Coke's attorney, Don Foote, said he would listen to U.S. authorities but insisted his client should face charges in Jamaican courts.

    Golding said last week that citizens should "allow the courts to deal with the extradition matter," the state-run Jamaica Information Service reported.

    In a statement Sunday, Golding announced an emergency meeting of his Cabinet in response to the heavy gunfire and blockades, the information agency said.

    Larry Birns, director of the Center for Hemispheric Affairs think tank, said he believes Jamaica "is probably tipping into being a narco-state and it has become too big a problem for the United States to handle in the tried and true ways of the past."

    In August, the U.S. attorney's office in New York charged Coke, accusing him of leading an international criminal syndicate known as the "Shower Posse."

    "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," the DEA said.

    "Coke and his co-conspirators also arm their organization with illegally trafficked firearms," the agency said.

    Coke is on the Justice Department's list of Consolidated Priority Organization Targets, which the department said "includes the world's most dangerous narcotics kingpins."

    The U.S. State Department issued a travel alert for Jamaica last week.

    CNN's Jeanne Meserve and journalist Kirk Abrahams contributed to this report.
    http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/ ... 1&iref=BN1
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    Coke lord 'deals'

    Seeks NY transfer to save skin in Jamaica

    By MURRAY WEISS and DAN MANGAN

    Last Updated: 6:28 AM, May 27, 2010

    Posted: 3:48 AM, May 27, 2010

    Desperate to end the bloodbath on the streets of Kingston from four days of shootouts between Jamaican security forces and supporters of a fugitive drug lord, US officials are negotiating his surrender to face federal cocaine trafficking and gun-running charges in New York, The Post has learned.

    The lawyer of accused drug kingpin Christopher "Dudus" Coke has been in contact with US authorities about a voluntary extradition, a source said.

    The source speculated that Coke wants to avoid being killed by Jamaican police and troops who are attacking his stronghold in the capital city.


    AP
    UNDER FIRE: Jamaican cops take cover in Kingston yesterday, the third day of a gang shootout that has killed up to 49.


    As many as 49 people have been killed in Kingston since Monday, when Jamaican authorities stormed a slum where Coke resides after Prime Minister Bruce Golding decided to extradite him to face trial in Manhattan after months of opposing such a move.

    Most of the dead were young men, gang supporters of Coke, who were killed when heavily armed security forces stormed the Tivoli Gardens slum that US prosecutors say served as a "garrison" for his supporters.

    Up to 500 people have been detained in connection with the search for Coke, reputed head of a criminal organization known as the Shower Posse, which murdered hundreds of people by "showering" them with bullets during the 1980s cocaine wars.

    "Security forces are under extreme pressure now," said Mark Shields, Jamaica's former deputy police commissioner, who now runs a private security firm. "We have urban war going on."

    The US Justice Department calls Coke "one of the world's most dangerous narcotics kingpins," but in Jamaica, he also has cultivated the image of a Robin Hood whose minions dole out food and cash to poor residents.

    Coke, 41, was indicted in 2007 in Manhattan federal court for conspiracy to distribute marijuana and cocaine, and for firearms-trafficking conspiracy. The charges, which became public only this week, carry a mandatory sentence of life in prison if he's convicted, and millions of dollars in fines.

    The indictment, which only this week became public, said that Coke has since the early 1990s controlled a barricaded Tivoli Gardens, which is guarded by gunmen whom he controls.

    "From at least . . . 1994, members of the organization have been involved in drug trafficking in the New York area, Kingston, Jamaica, and elsewhere," charges the indictment.

    "Organization members purchase firearms in the United States and ship those firearms to Jamaica."

    "Once those firearms arrive in Jamaica, Coke decides how and to whom they will be distributed. Coke's access to firearms, as well as cash, serves to support and increase his authority and power in Kingston, Jamaica, and elsewhere."

    Additional reporting by Bruce Golding and Post Wires

    murray.weiss@nypost.com

    Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/internatio ... z0pBIWXNVY
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