Christopher Coke

Christopher Michael Coke, also known as Dudus (born 13 March 1969), is a convicted Jamaican drug lord and the leader of the Shower Posse, a violent drug gang started by his father Lester Coke in Jamaica, which exported "large quantities" of marijuana and cocaine into the United States.

Due to their father's drug profits, Christopher and his siblings grew up amidst wealth and attended elite private schools.

Christopher Michael Coke was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1969, the youngest son of Lester Lloyd Coke and Patricia Halliburton.

He had an older sister and brother.

His father Lester Coke, who was also known as "Jim Brown", was the founder of a violent drug gang called the Shower Posse.

Together with the gang's co-founder Vivian Blake, Lester Coke oversaw the distribution of huge amounts of cocaine and marijuana throughout Jamaica and the United States; they were blamed for more than 1000 murders in both countries during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The gang ruled the Tivoli Gardens neighborhood of West Kingston, where the Coke family lived.

Although the area had a history of extreme poverty, Coke earned immense wealth from the gang's profits and his family lived in luxury.

Christopher Coke and his siblings attended school with children of the country's political elite.

The family suffered from the violence associated with the competition of the drug trade and their father's activities.

His sister and brother were killed in drug-related violence, in 1987 and 2004, respectively.

Coke was gradually brought into his father's organization.

Coke's sister was fatally shot in 1987.

The United States Department of Justice indicted Lester Coke and other key members of the gang, including Vivian Blake, on drug trafficking and murder charges in 1990.

Jamaican authorities arrested them.

Two years after his arrest, the senior Coke died in a mysterious fire at the General Penitentiary in Kingston, where he was being held pending extradition proceedings.

Christopher Coke had been incorporated into his father's trusted assistants.

He effectively began to rule the gang at the age of 23, after his father died.

He also developed himself as a community leader in Tivoli Gardens.

He distributed money to the area's poor, created employment, and set up community centers to help the children and others.

He gained widespread support in the community, to the extent that Jamaican police had to seek permission from his organization before entering the neighborhood.

After his father's death in 1992, Coke, at the age of 23, became leader of the gang and the de facto authority of the Tivoli Gardens community in West Kingston.

He developed community programs to help the poor and had so much local support that Jamaican police were unable to enter this neighborhood without community consent.

Coke's brother was killed in 2004.

In 2009 the United States first asked the Jamaican government for the extradition of Coke on drug trafficking charges.

Bruce Golding, the prime minister of Jamaica and leader of the Jamaica Labour Party, initially refused to extradite Coke.

He claimed that the US had used warrantless wiretapping to gather evidence on Coke.

Eavesdropping evidence precipitated the US call for extradition.

Coke was arrested on drug charges and extradited to the United States in 2010.

His arrest had provoked violence among Coke's supporters in West Kingston.

On 17 May 2010, Golding relented and the government issued a warrant for Coke's arrest.

The Senator Tom Tavares-Finson withdrew as Coke's attorney on 18 May 2010 "in order to avoid conflict of interest."

Following this news, Coke's supporters began protesting and arming themselves.

In late May 2010, the national government placed Kingston under a state of emergency after a series of shootings and firebombings within the city.

On 24 May 2010, military and police forces launched a large-scale operation in Kingston to arrest Coke.

By 27 May, at least 73 people had been killed in clashes between Jamaican security forces and gunmen in West Kingston, primarily in the neighbourhood of Tivoli Gardens.

This casualty toll has climbed to a confirmed number of 76 dead victims.

Mattathias Schwartz, writing for The New Yorker, reported the death toll at 74, including one soldier.

In 2011, Coke pleaded guilty to federal racketeering charges in connection with drug trafficking and assault.

On 8 June 2012, he was sentenced by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York to 23 years in federal prison.