Right Now, There's a War Going on in Jamaica

The Jamaican government's efforts to capture drug kingpin Christopher "Dudus" Coke (pictured) have been met with resistance and, as a result, at least 30 people have died.

Coke has built a loyal following in Tivoli Gardens, the poor West Kingston slum that is his stronghold. U.S. authorities say he has been trafficking cocaine to the streets of New York City since the mid-1990s, allegedly hiring island women to hide the drugs on themselves on flights to the United States.

Called "president" and "shortman" by his supporters, Coke does not wear flashy clothes or hold court at Kingston nightclubs like other powerful gang bosses. The few published photographs of the 5-foot-4-inch Jamaican the U.S. Justice Department calls one of the world's most dangerous drug lords show an unassuming man with a pot belly.

On Tuesday, masked gunmen in West Kingston vanished down side streets barricaded with barbed wire and junked cars. The sound of gunfire echoed across the slums on Jamaica's south coast, far from the tourist meccas of the north shore.

The son of an alleged gangster, the 41-year-old Coke has strong ties to the governing Jamaica Labor Party, which has counted on gunmen inside his Tivoli Gardens slum to intimidate election rivals. By exposing the ties between gangs and politicians, some hope the explosion of violence will put Jamaica on a path to reform.

Members of Coke's Shower Posse and affiliated gangs began barricading his stronghold last week following an announcement by Prime Minister Bruce Golding that he would approve Coke's extradition on drug- and gun-running. Golding, who represents Tivoli Gardens, had stonewalled the U.S. request for nine months.

Along the pitted and trash-strewn streets of West Kingston, residents say Coke is feared for his strong-arm tactics, but also is known for helping out slum dwellers with grocery bills, jobs and school fees.

He reportedly owns a company called Presidential Click that throws wild street parties in Tivoli Gardens each week and handles public works contracts in West Kingston's slums, where flatbed trucks have brought in huge stockpiles of construction materials to build in barricades against the police.

His influence extends well beyond the capital. Police say gunmen from gangs that operate under the umbrella of his Shower Posse elsewhere on the island have been flocking to his defense. Federal prosecutors in the southern district of New York say drug traffickers in the U.S. also routinely sent him gifts including clothes, accessories and car parts in recognition of his influence over the American cocaine trade.

"Mr. Coke is a strongman whose tentacles spread far and wide," said the Rev. Renard White, a leader of a Justice Ministry peace initiative that works in Jamaica's troubled communities. "He has great wealth, benefited from government contracts, and owned businesses doing imports, exports, construction. He has all of these things - and everyone knows it."

While the fighting hasn't spread to the areas frequented by tourists, the United States and several other countries have issued travel alert warnings and local people were urged to move out of the roughest Kingston neighborhoods.


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