POLICE Commissioner Owen Ellington wants Tivoli Gardens fugitive Christopher Dudus Coke captured alive. Speaking with Observer editors and reporters at the newspapers weekly Monday Exchange at his office on Old Hope Road in St Andrew yesterday, Ellington said the country would be better served if Coke is given his day in court.

It is very important for Jamaica and Coke and his sympathisers to know that I want him to be captured alive. I want him to face trial and if he is guilty, I want him to be punished so that he and his sympathisers will know, perhaps for the first time, that if they break the law they can be punished, Ellington said.

Its very important that he is captured. I dont want him killed in this operation.

Ellington also said that Coke should be afforded a fair trial if he is arrested.

If he is innocent, I want him and his sympathisers to know that the law protects the innocent, he said.

Coke has been on the run since last week when the security forces launched a major offensive against a militia which assembled in Tivoli Gardens. The gunmen sought to prevent any attempt by the security forces to enter the heavily barricaded area to serve an arrest warrant on Coke and restore order to the community.

Coke is wanted by the United States Government to answer charges related to drug trafficking and gun-running.

Calls by the police for him to turn himself in have fallen on deaf ears. Coke has also refused several pleas, including those from former prime minister Edward Seaga and clergymen Herro Blair and Al Miller, to give himself up.

Several police attempts to nab Coke have been unsuccessful.

Confidential informants have told the US authorities that the 41-year-old Coke had trafficked cocaine and hundreds of pounds of marijuana into the United States. They said that Coke used women to smuggle cocaine in body cavities while travelling to New York under the guise of purchasing clothing for their shops in Kingston.

The informants also confessed to sending guns packed in refrigerators.

Two weeks ago Coke was seen as an untouchable and was described by former minister of national security Peter Phillips as probably the most powerful man in Jamaica. According to Ellington, that was a myth that has been shattered by the decisive action taken by the security forces who have taken control of the garrison community which was run with an iron fist by Coke and his cronies.

Today, he is on the run. He is hiding like a rat which means that any constable anywhere with the knowledge that a warrant exists can put their hand in his waistband and bring him in, said Ellington. So the status quo has changed, and that is the more important victory for Jamaica. Never mind that we have not found him yet. He will be found at some stage and he will be brought to justice.

The commissioner also had a word of advice for persons who had ambitions of filling the breach that may be left if Coke is nabbed.

If you are aspiring for leadership the first duty is to adhere to the rule of law, he said.