FUGITIVE Christopher Dudus Coke took off faster than a cat when soldiers began pounding his West Kingston enclave of Tivoli Gardens early on Labour Day, May 24, an associate of the dethroned self-styled area leader told the Observer.
The man tek off like a p**s when him hear the first bum (bomb) drop, the associate said of his former leader, who has been on the run since May 17 after a warrant was issued for his arrest in relation to an extradition matter.
Coke, 42, the adopted son of another former Tivoli Gardens don, Lester Lloyd Coke, otherwise called Jim Brown, is wanted by the United States to answer charges related to drug trafficking and gunrunning. He has been successful in evading a forceful dragnet established by the security forces and remains Jamaicas most wanted man.
Coke is said to be leader of the infamous Shower Posse, a gang that has its roots in the United States (US) and which is responsible for the murder of over 1,600 people during the cocaine wars of the 1980s. Victims were often sprayed with bullets, a practice from which the gangs name was derived, US law enforcers said.
Police and soldiers launched a highprofile assault on Cokes Tivoli Gardens base a day after two policemen were killed in the Mountain View area, east of the Jamaica capital, and several police stations either burnt to the ground, or used as shooting practice by criminals who sprayed their walls, windows and doors with bullets.
But Coke, who was in Tivoli Gardens when the clashes began, quickly jumped ship, leaving behind some of his fighters. When the smoke cleared almost three days later, police reported that 73 civilians and a soldier were killed, figures that may be adjusted, according to head of the constabulary, Commissioner Owen Ellington, as investigations showed that some bodies were found outside of Tivoli Gardens.
Him just tek off so and lef everybody, the associate said on the weekend. The man move so fast that not even lightning coulda ketch him.
Asked where he thought Dudus went and which escape route he took out of Tivoli Gardens, the associate said that he was not sure.
