New York Times Article: Jamaican Drug Lord Christopher Coke Surrenders To The Jamaican Authorities!!!
Suspected Drug Lord Taken in Jamaica
In May, Jamaican soldiers patrolled the streets of Denham, a neighborhood in Kingston, where fighting took place over several days.
By MARC LACEY and KAREEM FAHIM
Published: June 22, 2010
MEXICO CITY — A reputed gang leader wanted in the United States on gun and drug charges was taken into custody by Jamaican authorities on Tuesday as the furious search for him, which set off violent clashes in Kingston, the Jamaican capital, entered its second month.
Jamaica Constabulary Force, via Reuters
Christopher Coke
Owen Ellington, commissioner of the police, the Jamaican Constabulary Force, later told reporters that the reputed gang leader, Christopher Coke, had been peacefully taken into custody while in a vehicle with the Rev. Al Miller, an evangelical preacher who helped arrange the recent surrender of Mr. Coke’s brother and sister.
Mr. Miller told reporters that Mr. Coke had contacted him Tuesday and asked for help in turning himself in at the American Embassy in Kingston. The two men were en route to the embassy when the police stopped the car and arrested Mr. Coke, he said. Mr. Coke is willing to forgo an extradition hearing and face trial in the United States, said Mr. Miller, of the nondenominational Whole Life Ministry.
Witnesses outside a police station in St. Catherine Parish said Mr. Coke was wearing a bulletproof vest, and was seen being escorted to a helicopter.
Mr. Coke’s legal predicament strained relations between Jamaica and the United States and led to dozens of deaths over several days in late May as Jamaican security forces forced their way into Tivoli Gardens, the poor neighborhood that Mr. Coke controlled, in a futile effort to apprehend him.
Known as Dudus, Short Man and President, Mr. Coke, 42, was indicted last August in New York on charges that he had controlled an international drug ring from his Kingston stronghold. Prosecutors say Mr. Coke’s confederates in New York sent him part of their drug proceeds and shipped guns to him that he used to bolster his authority.
Mr. Coke’s case shed light on the longstanding practice in Jamaica of politicians and gang leaders sharing power, for the benefit of both. The gang leaders help turn out the vote at election time. In exchange, they are afforded government contracts for various jobs and protection from the law.
Mr. Coke’s father was a gang leader with considerable influence in the Jamaican Labour Party. The son followed in his footsteps as leader of the so-called Shower Posse, law enforcement officials said. When Prime Minister Bruce Golding, who represents Tivoli Gardens in Parliament, was elected in 2007, Mr. Coke’s influence seemed to grow and his business interests received sizable government backing.
But the indictment from the United States interrupted the arrangement.
At first, Mr. Golding fought the extradition, arguing that it was based on flawed evidence. The United States responded furiously. “Jamaica’s delay in processing the U.S. extradition request for a major suspected drug and firearms trafficker with reported ties to the ruling party highlights the potential depth of corruption in the government,” said a State Department counternarcotics report released in March.
But when criticism grew to the point that Mr. Golding’s government hung in the balance, he backed down and agreed to send Mr. Coke to New York
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