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| Tivoli six months AD (After Dudus) |
Residents say that conditions have taken a turn for the worse in Tivoli Gardens since the incursion in May which ultimately led to the extradition to the United States of area don Christopher “Dudus” Coke.
Coke is in a US jail awaiting trial on drug trafficking and related charges.
Six months later without their erstwhile leader, they claim they are in dire straits with no prospects.
Some of them say that before they felt safe to walk the streets freely late at night, leave their doors and burglar bars open, and get money to send their children to school and buy food when they were hungry.
Now, their women claim they are being raped, they have no money, no jobs, and no hope of getting one once they reveal their addresses to prospective employers.
To make matters worse, they are being victimised by the very police who have been sworn to serve and protect them.
Residents: no life without Dudus Continue reading
Local media early this morning noted that Jamaica’s Most Wanted Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke, who is wanted in the U.S. on guns and drug related charges released a statement via his lawyer George Soutar. The letter comes, immediately on the heels of the alleged strongman of the West Kingston are of which Tivoli Garden falls decision to waived his right to an extradition trial in Jamaica earlier today.
The letter written by Coke, who left the island earlier this afternoon at 2:05pm, can be found below.
I have, today, instructed my Attorneys that I intend to waive my right to an extradition hearing in Jamaica and to proceed directly to the United States under the terms of the Extradition Laws and treaty between Jamaica and the United States of America.
I have taken this decision of my own free will and have done so even though I am of the belief that my case would have been successfully argued in the Courts of Jamaica.
I take this decision for I now believe it to be in the interest of my family, the community of Western Kingston and in particular the people of Tivoli Gardens and above all Jamaica.
Everyone, the whole country, has been adversely affected by the process that has surrounded my extradition and I hope that my action today will go some way towards healing all who have suffered and will be of benefit to the community of Tivoli Gardens.
Above all I am deeply upset and saddened by the unnecessary loss of lives which could have been avoided, be it of members of the Security Forces and over eighty (80) residents of Tivoli or any other innocent Jamaicans that has occurred during this time.
I leave Jamaica and my family in particular Patsy with a heavy heart but fully confident that in due course I will be vindicated and returned to them.
Pray for me and God bless Jamaica.
– Christopher Coke
FORMER Tivoli Gardens don Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke was flown out of the country at 2:05 this afternoon.
Coke left Up Park Camp at 1:33 pm in a Jamaica Defence Force helicopter which then transferred him to an aircraft at the Norman Manley International Airport.
Coke is on his way to the United States where he faces drug and gun-running charges.
Earlier today he waived his right to an extradition trial in Jamaica.
Coke had been on the run since May 24. He was captured in the company of the Reverend Al Miller on Tuesday. Miller said he was accompanying Coke to the US Embassy in Liguanea, where the fugitive wanted to turn himself in to US authorities.
[Post updated via Jamaica Observer]
Former Tivoli strongman Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke is now in police custody in Jamaica.
The businessman, who has been on the run since the Jamaican government signed an extradition request May 18, was turned over to the police this afternoon.
The Gleaner understands the Reverend Al Miller facilitated his surrender about an hour and a half ago to the police.
The pastor has been instrumental in the surrender of Coke’s sister Sandy and brother Leighton.
The one-month manhunt for Coke has stretched from inner city communities in West Kingston to upscale neighbourhoods in St. Andrew. Houses of past and present politicians have also been searched, as the quest to find Coke fanned out to rural communities in Manchester, St. Mary and St. Ann.
The Labour Day military assault on Coke’s heavily barricaded Tivoli Gardens stronghold led to bloody clashes which claimed the life of one soldier and 73 civilians.
In their bid to find Coke the police also placed a $5 million bounty on his head.
Coke is wanted in the US on drug and gunrunning charges.
[Update made via Go-Jamaica]
The Police have almost tripled the reward being offered for information leading to the capture of alleged crime lord Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke.
According to the police high command, the bounty is now $5 million, up from $1.7 million.
Coke, the former gang leader of Tivoli Gardens, Kingston is wanted to face extradition proceedings in Jamaica to determine whether he should be sent to the United States to be tried for drug and gunrunning charges.
Persons with information on the whereabouts of Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke are asked to call Operation Kingfish at 811; Crime Stop at 311 or Police Control at 119.
[Update via Go-Jamaica]
REVEREND Al Miller says Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke maintains he is misunderstood by those who failed to see the many initiatives implemented by him in West Kingston to make the crime rate in that police division the lowest.
Miller, who last met with Coke — now a fugitive — two days before the security forces took control of his Tivoli Gardens stronghold, said Coke spoke openly about, among other things, the role he played in helping the elderly and providing a start to many youth who would otherwise have turned to a life of crime.
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  Tivoli Gardens residents stage a peaceful street protest and march in support of Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke on May 20, urging the authorities to leave him alone. |
Miller said Coke spoke of the perception that the public had of him which caused them to view him differently from who he really is.
“He voiced his concern that his side of the story was not being told,” Miller told the Observer on Monday.
Miller said Coke insisted that were it not for his input, violence would be a constant feature of Downtown Kingston. Instead, he said that he tried to do the positives which no one spoke about. Continue reading
Christopher “Dudus” Coke
Who is he?
An alleged drug lord and son of accused drug lord Lester Lloyd Coke. A New York grand jury indictment alleges that he has been involved with gun and drug trafficking since 1994.
What are the charges against him?
Coke was charged in August with conspiracy to distribute marijuana and cocaine, as well as conspiracy to traffic in firearms.
Is he involved in gangs?
The U.S. government alleges that Coke runs the Shower Posse, an outfit Coke’s father was said to control before his death in 1992.
Is Coke his real name?
His real name is Michael Christopher Coke, but his aliases include “Paul Christopher Scott,” “Presi,” “General,” “President,” “Duddus” and “Shortman.”
Where is he from?
He controls a Kingston neighborhood called Tivoli Gardens, which the U.S. government calls a “garrison community” barricaded and guarded by his gunmen. Coke’s gang allegedly imports weapons at a wharf adjacent to the neighborhood.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Christopher “Dudus” Coke, who controls the impoverished West Kingston enclaves now blockaded by gang members, is likened by experts to both Robin Hood and Pablo Escobar.
But comparisons to the hero of Sherwood Forest and the one-time Colombian kingpin are not mutually exclusive.
Coke, 41, rules via a combination of violence, corruption and philanthropy, experts say, and the unrest in the Jamaican capital this week is a result of competing interests: those who want him handed over for drug crimes versus those who consider him a benefactor.
“He lives in a poor area, and because of his sale of cocaine, he basically plays the Robin Hood role,” said Jamaican-born attorney David Rowe, a University of Miami adjunct professor with expertise in Jamaican extraditions.
Jamaicans, many of whom live in abject poverty in Kingston, are reluctant to help the government extradite Coke to the United States, experts say.
“They don’t know, if he’s extradited, who will be there for them. There are mothers wondering, ‘Who’s going to buy my child lunch?’ or ‘If I get sick, who’s going to pay my hospital bills?’ ” Rowe explained.
Coke and his gang hand out sandwiches in the streets, send children to school, build medical and community centers — “all the things to ingratiate himself that Pablo Escobar used to do in Colombia,” said Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, a think tank specializing in U.S. policies in Latin America.
In August, a grand jury in New York handed up an indictment alleging that Coke and his Shower Posse conspired to distribute cocaine and marijuana in the United States. The indictment also accuses Coke and his cohorts of trafficking firearms.
The Jamaican government initially balked on extradition, and in March, Prime Minister Bruce Golding issued a statement denying claims that his government was not cooperating with U.S. counternarcotics efforts. Instead, he said, a wiretap employed in the American investigation violated Jamaican law.
“The Jamaican government, rather than summarily refusing the request, discussed with the U.S. authorities the breaches that had occurred which made it impossible for the minister, being aware of such breaches, to issue the authority to proceed,” Golding’s statement said.
Last week, Golding delivered a different message, urging citizens to “allow the courts to deal with the extradition matter.”
The violence yielding Monday’s state of emergency in Kingston, with gang members battling police, subsequently unfolded.
Rowe said Coke’s organization uses “mules” — often women smuggling drugs internally — to distribute cocaine along the U.S. Eastern Seaboard.
Every major city on the East Coast has Shower Posse representatives, and there is evidence the gang has a presence in places as far away San Francisco, California, and Alaska, the professor said.
Though Jamaica produces a great deal of marijuana, it serves only as a trans-shipment point for South American cocaine bound for the U.S., he said.
Birns said guns purchased in the United States are shipped back to Jamaica as well as other locales where cartels need to “impose their writ.” The guns being used in the Kingston revolt are probably from the United States, Rowe added.
With an embattled economy, corrupt politicians and a general lack of public services and security, “Jamaica has become a sort of drug island” servicing not only North America’s appetite but also the African market, Birns said.
Birns said Coke, the son of accused drug lord Lester Lloyd Coke (aka “Jim Brown” or “don dadda”), who was burned to death in a jail cell in 1992, rose to the top of the drug trade amid the turmoil.
“He is the predominant, he is the triumphant gang leader who has emerged from the drug wars. He has become the Mr. Big of drug trafficking,” he said.
Coke benefits from what Birns calls “the megalithic levels of corruption” in Jamaica.
In a narcotics report this year, the U.S. State Department said that “pervasive public corruption” as well as corruption at Kingston’s ports facilitated the movement of drugs and money through Jamaica.
“Corruption remains a major barrier to improving counternarcotics efforts,” the report said.
Rowe said Coke enjoys connections within the country’s ruling Jamaica Labor Party, of which Golding is a member. Also, Rowe noted, a JLP senator, Thomas Tavares-Finson, recently stepped down as Coke’s lawyer. Tavares-Finson also represented Coke’s father before his death.
Rowe said he believes that, more than protecting Coke, JLP officials are concerned with protecting themselves. The grand jury is still investigating Coke, Rowe said, and Golding “believes Coke will cut a deal with prosecutors to testify against senior government members.”
There are mothers wondering, ‘Who’s going to buy my child lunch?’ or ‘If I get sick, who’s going to pay my hospital bills?’
–David Rowe, Miami attorney and professor
A similar protectionism may have been don dadda’s undoing. A 1992 Newsweek article on the reportedly accidental death of Coke’s father stated, “The assumption in Kingston is that friends in the Shower Posse decided that he would be a better dead myth than a live witness in Florida.”
Birns said it would be interesting to watch the extradition proceedings play out. The United States “has been taking a very delicate road,” because any action exacerbating Jamaica’s tenuous economy could set off a “large-scale illegal migration of Jamaican nationals to the U.S.”
At the same time, the Obama administration needs to show that its recently announced drug-control strategy is more than mere rhetoric, he said.
And while Jamaica may be reluctant to hand over one of Kingston’s favorite sons, the country is “extremely vulnerable to U.S. leverage,” Birns said.
Unlike in its drug-war partnership with Mexico, Birns said, the United States has few Jamaican officials who it feels are impervious to intimidation or coercion by Coke, making it impossible to find a judge who could “withstand the temptation of bribes or the fear that their children will be kidnapped.”
“That is why extradition is so important to the United States,” Birns said. “If he were jailed in Jamaica, [Coke’s allies] would free him in a day.”
[Update made via CNN International]
We’re currently in receipt of some intelligence indicating that the alleged strongman for West Kingston, Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke is considering wavering his constitutional rights and be handed over to the US Marshall who have been waiting to extradite him.
According to information obtain, the reputed gang-lord is considering all his options in this controversial matter, resulting in the US and UK government issuing travel advisory to its citizens traveling to Kingston, Jamaica.
Whilst there has been no official confirmation of this it could prevent a possible blood bath in the West Kingston area. In 2004 the West Kingston area of Tivoli Gardens was commandeer and several alleged gunmen were found suffering from gunshots or dead.
It is expected that Coke’s legal counsel, will likely address the matter soon.
In a post to his twitter account Former DCP Mark Shield stated, “Breaking news – Paul Beswick – Coke’s lawyer out of meeting with US law enforcement – Negotiation still an option.” Giving a confirmation that some negotiations are pending. The Former DCP is now serves as a International Crime & Security Sector Consultancy.
As Jamaica remains on ease after violent outbreaks across sections of the capital Kingston, Prime Minister Bruce Golding earlier tonight made an address to the nation, just last Monday he made a ‘well anticipated’ address following his mishandling of the Manatt, Phelps and Phillips ordeal.
His address tonight was however confine to the State of Emergency that has been restricted to the Corporate area, mainly Kingston & St. Andrew, in which the capital Kingston falls.
The slightly-edgy looking Prime Minister in his National Broadcast assured the nation that all was being done to return the nation to a state of normalcy and made an appeal for citizens to aide the police in their duties.
Below is the address made to the nation by the Prime Minister.
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My fellow Jamaicans..I have spent the last several days in deep contemplation about the issues that have caused so much anxiety throughout the society including the reaction to my statement in Parliament last Tuesday and the events and circumstances that led up to it.
I have listened very carefully to the views expressed by members of the public. I have also consulted with my Cabinet and parliamentary members, the party organization and various civil society groups. I thank those who have expressed their support and have urged me to find a way to deal with these matters and to put them behind. I respect the views of those who feel that, in the circumstances, I should step aside.
I have asked God to guide me in my response and the decisions I must make. I regret the entire affair and it has been deeply painful for me, members of my family and you who have been hurt and disappointed.
In hindsight, the party should never have become involved in the way that it did and I should never have allowed it but I must accept responsibility for it and express my remorse to the nation.
The way in which this matter has been handled has raised the question of trust. Several persons and organizations have expressed their disappointment. I should not have been surprised because I had raised the bar as to what they should expect of me and what has transpired has fallen short of their expectations. And here I want to personally thank the wide cross section of persons who took the trouble to write to me, not all complimentary but all expressing the deep anguish that they experienced over what had transpired. Others have offered their prayers and to all I am deeply grateful.
I am aware that trust can only be restored by forgiveness and atonement. That will take time and I am committing myself to do everything that is humanly possible to repair the damage that has been done to that trust. In return I ask for your forgiveness.
This matter of the extradition has consumed too much of our energies and attention and has led to a virtual paralysis that must be broken.
I crave your understanding, the government has never refused… never refused… the request for the extradition of Christopher Coke. It has simply asked the US authorities to provide additional information that would enable the Minister to issue the authorization in compliance with the terms of the treaty. In the controversy that has ensued, we sought the opinion of one of Jamaica’s most eminent lawyers, Dr. Lloyd Barnett, who advised that the issues involved were not sufficiently settled in law, and therefore the Attorney-General should seek a declaration from the Court before exercising her authority.
I wrestled with the potential conflict between the issues of non-compliance with the terms of the treaty and the unavoidable perception that because Coke is associated with my constituency, the government’s position was politically contrived. I felt that the concepts of fairness and justice should not be sacrificed in order to avoid that perception. In the final analysis, however, that must be weighed against the public mistrust that this matter has evoked and the destabilizing effect it is having on the nation’s business. Accordingly, the Minister of Justice, in consideration of all the factors, will sign the authorization for the extradition process to commence.
The engagement of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips by Mr. Harold Brady was an effort to secure assistance in resolving the stalemate because the party was concerned about the negative effect it was having on relations between Jamaica and the United States. I sanctioned this initiative but made it clear that it was to be kept completely separate from the government. As I later discovered, those instructions were not followed. Having sanctioned it, I cannot escape responsibility for it or the developments that have ensued although I was not myself involved in those activities.
When I was asked in Parliament whether the government had engaged the services of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, I answered truthfully and definitively that it had not done so. It is felt that I should, there and then, have acknowledged the party initiative led by Mr. Brady. On reflection, I should have and tonight I express my profound regret and offer to the Parliament and people of Jamaica my deepest apologies.
It took time for me to make my statement last Tuesday because of the efforts I had to make to find out exactly what had transpired in this Manatt, Phelps & Phillips affair. I felt I had a duty to make that statement and I spoke on the basis of the information that has been presented to me.
The business of the country and the challenges that we have to overcome require that they be tackled with urgency and unquestioned authority. The economic programme that has restored stability after the tumultuous impact of the global recession and is showing early signs of recovery requires firm hands and certain leadership. The transformation of the government to improve the delivery of services despite the budgetary constraints and the stimulation of the investments that are needed to restore the jobs that were lost and create new ones require strong management unfettered by the ghost of the recent ordeal. The worrying crime problem must be confronted with vigour, confidence and determination. The social partnership being built through the Partnership for Transformation to bring a new collaborative and consultative approach to policymaking requires commitment and direction.
Yesterday, I indicated to the Central Executive including my parliamentary members that I was prepared to step aside as Prime Minister. A new Prime Minister would need to be assured of the support of the Party and a Special General Conference would have to be convened to elect a new leader so that a new Prime Minister can be appointed. The offer was rejected and I was asked to reconsider. I know that to continue requires on my part a recommitment to the purposeful change that we had promised.
I thought deeply about it last night and recognized that if I am to continue it cannot be business as usual. We have done well on some fronts but there are issues such as crime and violence to which much more effort and determination will have to be brought. Our legislative programme on which so much of our manifesto commitments were based will have to be renewed. Tough and uncompromising measures to deal with the pervasive crime problem and to stamp out corruption will have to be matters of urgency.
I will be tabling in Parliament the proposals emanating from the Public Sector Transformation Unit for the restructuring of government to invite public comment before a final decision is taken. I intend to transfer some of my portfolio responsibilities to other Ministers to enable me to focus more on the issues that drive change and transformation.
I intend to concentrate much of my efforts on advancing some of the unfinished business of our mandate. In our election manifesto, we committed ourselves to a wide range of political and constitutional reform measures to transform the way politics is conducted and the way government operates, to stamp out corruption and hold public officials to account. Some of these have already been implemented or are at an advanced stage. These include:
. Appointment of a Special Prosecutor to fight corruption
. Whistleblower legislation to aid in fighting crime and corruption
. Independent Commission to investigate abuses by the security forces
. Fiscal responsibility legislation to, among other things, exert control over our fiscal deficit and accumulation of debt.
. Reform of the Libel laws to enable greater transparency and accountability in government
However, having to grapple with the effects of the global recession consumed so much of our energies that we have not been able to move as fast as I would have liked on some important elements of the reform package.
Going forward, I intend to put the following measures on fast track:
. Measures to reverse the institutionalization of political tribalism and garrisons as manifested in many constituencies across political lines including my own constituency, an issue I propose to anchor in the Partnership for Transformation and with a commitment to implement the recommendations.
. Provisions for the impeachment of public officials
. Term limits for the office of Prime Minister
. Vesting constitutional authority in the Contractor-General and Electoral Commission
. Laws to regulate political party financing
. Enacting into law certain provisions of the Political Code of Conduct with appropriate oversight and penalties for violations
. Criminal sanctions for breaches of the award of contracts
. Parliamentary oversight in the appointment of certain statutory positions
I intend, also, to seek parliamentary approval for the anti-crime Bills, the DNA Evidence Act and new criminal gang legislation to strengthen our capacity to fight crime including measures to prevent the award of government contracts to individuals linked to criminal activities.
The nation’s business cannot continue to be disrupted and distracted by the ordeal of the last several months. We must put it behind us and move on and I hope that after tonight we will be able to do so. And we must do so with humility. Our lapses at times into what comes across as arrogance and disrespect must not be allowed to happen, for we are the servants of the people. Again, I express my regret to those who were offended.
There is much that we have to accomplish as a people and many serious challenges that must be overcome but, together, we can make it work and ensure that our people enjoy a better life.
May God continue to bless Jamaica and provide the strength and support we all need.
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