Alleged drug lord Coke captured in Jamaica

ALLEGED drug kingpin Christopher “Dudus” Coke was arrested by police on the outskirts of Kingston, peacefully ending a manhunt for the fugitive at the centre of last month’s deadly raids in the Jamaican capital.

Coke, 42, is wanted for extradition to the United States on drug and gun trafficking charges.

Seventy-six people were killed in four days of gun battles last month when police and soldiers stormed the Tivoli Gardens slum in west Kingston in an attempt to take Coke into custody.

Coke was on his way to surrender at the US embassy in Kingston when police stopped him at the checkpoint, according to a minister who accompanied him.

“The police searched the vehicle that I was in and they recognised him and held him,” the Reverend Al Miller said.

Miller said Coke asked for his help in arranging the surrender at the embassy because he did not trust the police not to harm him if he surrendered to them.

“He also wanted to waive his right to an extradition hearing so that he could go to the US for a trial,” said Miller, of the nondenominational Whole Life Ministry.

US prosecutors have described Coke as the current leader of the “Shower Posse” that murdered hundreds of people during the cocaine wars of the 1980s.

Coke commanded a private militia and his supporters burned down two police stations and shot up four others in an attempt to prevent Coke’s extradition during attacks that preceded last month’s deadly raids.

If Coke waives his right to an extradition hearing, he could be sent directly to the US for trial.

Jamaica initially refused to extradite him to New York for trial after his indictment last year, and the case had strained relations between the United States and Jamaica.