Christopher Coke

Christopher Michael Coke (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. His sister and brother were killed in drug-related violence, in 1987 and 2004, respectively. Coke was gradually brought into his father's organisation.

After his father died in 1992, Coke, at the age of 23, became the 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 neighbourhood without community consent. 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.

Early life 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 neighbourhood 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. Coke's sister was fatally shot in 1987. Coke's brother was killed in 2004.

First U.S. convictions

Coke spent time in the United States as a teenager. In February 1988 he was arrested in North Carolina and later convicted in Wake County Superior Court of possession of stolen property. On or about 9 May 1988 he received a suspended three-year sentence. Later that year, on or about 16 December 1988, he was convicted in the Eastern District of North Carolina of transporting a firearm in interstate commerce while an illegal alien. After these cases he was deported to Jamaica.

These earlier convictions were not used to enhance his sentence when he pleaded guilty in New York in 2011, because they fell outside the time window the court applied.

Early criminal charges

Coke first came to wider public attention in Jamaica in the early 1990s. In January 1994 he was arrested by the Special Anti-Crime Task Force and charged over a triple murder that took place in Hannah Town on 29 June 1993. The dead were seven-year-old Lamar Mitchell, his five-year-old sister Audrey Anna Collins, and an elderly man named Earl Hines. Their mother, Valerie Barrett, was also shot and left with lasting injuries to one of her hands.

At the same time he faced additional counts of illegal possession of a firearm and of both cocaine and ganja. Court appearances followed in the Kingston Resident Magistrate’s Court and later the Gun Court.

These were not his first brushes with the law. The year before he had been charged with assault and possession of a small quantity of cocaine and ganja; those charges were later dismissed. In 1997 police again linked him to the disappearance of three people — Trinidadian Stephanie Douglas and Jamaicans Roger Henry and Fitzroy Walker — who vanished after trying to collect money while using his name. He was charged with kidnapping in that matter.

Rise to power 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 centres 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 organisation before entering the neighbourhood.

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.

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 2013, the Government of Jamaica announced it would set up a Commission of Inquiry to investigate and report on the operation: the commission, informally known as the Tivoli Inquiry, first sat in December 2014. It is chaired by Barbados judge Sir David Simmons with Justice Hazel Harris, Professor Anthony Harriott and Velma Hylton QC.

Capture Coke was detained during a routine roadblock while trying to reach the US Embassy in Kingston for surrender. He attempted to disguise himself as a woman, wearing a woman's wig and possessing a second one and a pair of women's sunglasses; however, the security forces recognised him through his disguise. Reverend Al Miller, an influential evangelical priest, was also detained while trying to facilitate the surrender. Miller told police Coke feared for his life if he surrendered directly to the police, and was asked for aid by Coke. Miller had previously facilitated the surrender of Coke's brother one month earlier.

Fearing for his safety, Coke voluntarily waived his right to an extradition trial so that he could be taken to the US to be tried. Coke's father had died in 1992 in a mysterious prison fire while awaiting an extradition trial in Jamaica.

Coke said that his decision to surrender and face charges was based on a desire to end the drug-related violence in Jamaica, to which he'd lost his sister, brother and father. He said:

"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 initially pleaded not guilty to federal drug trafficking and weapons trafficking charges in May 2011. On 30 August 2011, he pleaded guilty in front of Judge Robert P. Patterson, Jr. of United States District Court for the Southern District of New York to the following charges: racketeering conspiracy for trafficking large quantities of marijuana and cocaine into the United States, and conspiracy to commit assault in aid of racketeering, for his approval of the stabbing attack of a marijuana dealer in New York City. Defense attorneys cited members of Coke's family and other supporters, who portrayed him as a benevolent, philanthropic, and well-mannered individual. By contrast, federal prosecutors presented documents depicting Coke as willing to commit brutal acts of violence to support his drug empire, and implicating him in at least five murders. In one, he allegedly dismembered the victim with a chainsaw for stealing drugs from him. The Jamaican government provided evidence derived from wiretapping Coke's cellphone prior to his arrest; it had recorded at least 50,000 conversations dating back to 2004. On 8 June 2012 Coke was sentenced to 23 years in prison. He is now held at the Federal Correctional Institution, Fort Dix in Fort Dix, New Jersey with a release date of 29 January 2028. He has a register number of 02257-748.