NEW YORK (AP) — Jamaican gang leader Christopher “Dudus” Coke — known for his fiercely loyal following in his own country — also had his admirers in America, U.S. prosecutors say.
In court papers, the federal prosecutors in Manhattan say drug dealers in the U.S. regularly sent “cash and goods, including clothing and electronics, to Coke as ‘tribute’ payments, in recognition of his leadership and assistance.” The tribute payments also included firearms, the papers add.
Under heavy security, Coke was sent to New York on Thursday to face charges the tribute payments were part of a vast and lucrative conspiracy to flood the East Coast with cocaine and marijuana.
He was to appear on Friday in federal court in Manhattan to face drug and gun trafficking charges. The name of his attorney was not immediately available.
Coke, 42, was captured in Jamaica on Tuesday, but not without a fight: After Jamaica’s prime minister announced he would agree to a U.S. request the leader of the notorious Shower Posse gang be extradited, his armed supporters and government security forces clashed in the streets of the Tivoli Garden slums for four days, leaving 76 people dead.
On Wednesday, Coke agreed to waive extradition. He said he was saddened by the deaths and hoped his departure would help his country heal.
“I take this decision for I now believe it to be in the best interest of my family, the community of western Kingston and in particular the people of Tivoli Gardens and above all Jamaica,” Coke said in a statement released to the news media, his first public comments since the extradition request in August.
The U.S. indictment alleges that, since 1994, members of Coke’s gang in Jamaica and their U.S. counterparts “have sold narcotics, including marijuana and crack cocaine, at Coke’s direction.” It says that cooperators have recorded phone conversations with Coke about shipments of drugs and handguns.
At his extradition hearing at a military outpost in Kingston, the Caribbean nation’s capital, Coke expressed confidence that he will be found innocent and allowed to return to his family in Jamaica.
Coke faces a maximum sentence of life in prison in the United States if convicted.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.
