FORMER Shower Posse boss Vivian Blake died at the University Hospital of the West Indies yesterday after suffering a heart attack Saturday. According to a close associate, Blake had been ailing for some time.

Blake returned to Jamaica last year after spending eight years in a US prison. He was fingered as the mastermind behind the ruthless Shower Posse, which had established drug bases in more than 20 US cities, Canada and the United Kingdom and was reportedly responsible for more than 1,400 murders.

In December 1988, Blake slipped out of the United States on a cruise ship and entered Jamaica in Ocho Rios, St Ann. He managed to remain free for five years before he was arrested on an extradition warrant in 1998. He spent five years fighting extradition to the US before he was eventually handed over to US authorities.