| Submit your comments on this article |
| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| Alleged drug lord captured in Jamaica disguised as woman |
| 2010-06-24 |
| Ending a monthlong search that has cost 76 people their lives, Jamaican authorities on Tuesday captured Christopher "Dudus" Coke, 42, an alleged trafficker in guns and drugs who is also wanted in the United States. Acting on a tip, police captured Coke in St. Catherine parish on the outskirts of Kingston. He was dressed like a woman and wearing a wig, police said. Coke was in the company of the Rev. Al Miller, who earlier had mediated the surrender of Coke's brother, Leighton, to police. Coke was on his way to surrender at the U.S. Embassy in Kingston when he was stopped at a police checkpoint, Miller told a Reuters reporter. "The police searched the vehicle that I was in and they recognized him and held him," Miller said. Police said Tuesday they are now seeking to arrest Miller, who was not taken in with Coke and remains at large. The capture occurred two days after the police offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest. "I knew when they offered so much money, he would not be allowed to remain at-large too long," a vendor in downtown Kingston said. U.S. authorities initially requested the extradition of Coke in August after he was indicted in New York on drug- and gun-smuggling charges. Although he first declined to execute an arrest order, Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding finally launched an operation to capture Coke in the last month in the Tivoli Gardens slum, which is Coke's power base. Authorities met with resistance from Coke's gang members, with 73 civilians and three security force members killed in gun battles. More than 900 suspects were arrested and held in the National Arena for several days. Golding's reluctance to arrest Coke had raised suspicions that the leader was protecting him, and the bloody search for Coke nearly cost Golding his job. Opponents, including former Prime Minister Edward Seaga, urged Golding to resign, and he narrowly survived a no-confidence vote in Jamaica's Parliament on June 1. The case has focused scrutiny on the close relations between some Jamaican politicians and so-called "dons," or neighborhood ward bosses, of whom Coke was the most powerful. As the Caribbean became a major drug-trafficking route in recent years, U.S. authorities say that some dons, including Coke, became involved in illicit drugs and other illegal activities, with some accruing more power and wealth than their former political patrons. Coke allegedly was the leader of the so-called Shower Posse, the most powerful Jamaican drug-smuggling gang, with members in New York and other American cities along the East Coast. Coke's father is a former Shower Posse boss who was burned to death in jail in 1992 before he could be extradited. A state of emergency and curfew is still in effect for much of Kingston, and the U.S. State Department has issued a travel advisory for the capital and its environs. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 "Disguised as a Woman" > I'm a'guessin' this meant that [Italo-Sicilian Mafia style, Other US Underworld?]WEARING SENIOR CITIZEN SLIPPERS, BATHROBES, + FEIGNING? SICKNESS OR OLD-AGE DEMENTIA(S), ETC. didn't suffice??? The LATE MICHAEL JACKSON PIC'D WEARING WOMEN'S CLOTHES IN YEMEN??? Once again, Virgina, we learn why God invented RUSSIAN ROULETTE. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2010-06-24 00:15 |