Blake's pending release was announced on the BET programme, American Gangster, which aired on Thursday night.

The programme looked at the rise and fall of the Shower Posse - a criminal organisation which has its roots in Tivoli Gardens and which established bases in several cities in the US, Canada and Britain.

Blake was sentenced to 28 years in 2000 after he pleaded guilty to racketeering and criminal conspiracy. He never faced a jury after inking a plea bargain deal which resulted in the time he served while in Jamaica being used as part of his sentence.

Blake spent five years fighting extradition to the US after the American Government accused him of ordering dozens of murders, drug trafficking and other serious crimes.

The Shower Posse reigned terror on the streets of the US and its members are reported to have murdered over 1,400 persons in the United States.

The group has been accused of funnelling huge amounts of cocaine into the United States and was said to use its profits to smuggle guns and ammunition back to Jamaica.

Blake is quoted on the programme as saying "I ran it like a CEO of a Fortune 500 company. The only difference is that instead of litigating in a court of law, we held court in the streets."

The gang was said to have major drug operations in New York, Miami, Philadelphia, New Jersey, Los Angeles, Alaska, Washington D C, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Montreal, Toronto and London.

In October 1988, Blake managed to elude a nationwide dragnet which saw more than 100 posse members being held during Operation Dragnet, which was set up to nab members of the notorious gang.

He left the shores of the United States on December 3, 1988 on a cruise ship and entered Jamaica at Ocho Rios in St Ann. He remained free for 10 years and was the owner of a car, motorcycle and jet ski rental company and a once popular night club in St Catherine.

But while Blake was enjoying his freedom, some of his cronies who were slapped with long sentences, began to turn against him. Chief among them was Charles 'Little Nut' Miller, a native of St Kitts who said many of the murders were committed on Blake's orders.

Miller was eventually sentenced to life without parole after slipping out of witness protection and leading a ruthless drug-running operation in his home country.

Also turning on Blake was Shower Posse enforcer, Kirk Bruce, who admitted to committing more than 100 murders on US soil and is now serving a life sentence.