Reputed gang leader Christopher "Dudus" Coke, who eluded a bloody police offensive in his slum stronghold last month, was arrested Tuesday by authorities outside Jamaica's capital, the island's top cop said.
Coke has been called one of the world's most dangerous drug lords by U.S. authorities and faces trial in New York on drug and arms trafficking charges. His arrest came nearly a month after 76 people were killed during a four-day assault by police and soldiers on the West Kingston slum of Tivoli Gardens, Coke's base that was defended by his armed followers. At a news conference, Police Commissioner Owen Ellington said the 42-year-old Coke was in good condition in police custody. He said Coke was captured by police manning a vehicle checkpoint along a highway, but said other "circumstances of (Coke's) arrest are being investigated."
Coke is said to fear suffering the same fate as his father, a gang leader known as Jim Brown, who died in a prison fire in 1992 while awaiting extradition to the U.S. on drug charges.
U.S. Embassy officials did not immediately return calls. A phone for Coke's lead attorney, Don Foote, went unanswered. Coke was born into Jamaica's gangland. His father was the leader of the notorious Shower Posse gang, a cocaine-trafficking band with agents in Jamaica and the U.S. that began operating in the 1980s and was named for its members' tendency to spray victims with bullets. The son took over from the father, U.S. authorities allege. In recent days, Jamaica's government had offered a $60,000 reward for information leading to Coke's arrest.
Also known as "President" to the people of his slum, Coke served as community leader and enforcer in the gritty neighborhood in an area that the government acknowledges it has long neglected.
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