Accused drug kingpin Christopher 'Dudus' Coke is kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day in a maximum-security prison in New York.

The Sunday Gleaner has learnt that Dudus, who last Friday appeared in court and pleaded not guilty to charges that he operated a massive drug and gunrunning enterprise, is confined to a very small area in the prison.

Solitary confinement is a punishment or special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is denied contact with any other persons, excluding members of the prison staff. It is considered by some as a form of psychological torture.

Coke has been under tight security since Tuesday of last week when he was apprehended on the Mandela Highway, near the border of St Andrew and St Catherine.

But the security measures around Coke tightened even more when he was placed in the hands of the Americans last Thursday.

An hour of exercise

According to word out of New York, Dudus is kept alone in his cell for 23 hours each day, only taken out for an hour of exercise.

"No one from outside the prison system is allowed to speak to him at this time," disclosed an attorney who is watching the developments closely.

The court had appointed attorney-at-law Russel Newfeld from the Public Defender's Office to represent Coke when he appeared in court last Friday, but noted American defence lawyer Frank Doddato later told reporters that he expected to represent Coke and would vigorously fight the charges.

"There's not going to be any leeway for compromise here," Doddato told journalists, as he claimed he would be the man beside Coke when he appears for a bond hearing tomorrow.

But since then, three other lawyers in New York have indicated that they could also be representing the Coke who the American law-enforcement agencies describe as one of the world's most dangerous drug dealers.

However, before the matter of legal representation is settled, Coke will be required to prove that the money to be used to pay his lawyer was not derived from any illegal activity.

"Before they can represent him, they will have to prove that the money that is going to be used to pay them is money which is not dirty. That will be very difficult to prove," a noted attorney told The Sunday Gleaner.

Coke was before the United States courts less than 24 hours after he was flown to that country.

This was the clearest indication that the US authorities had become impatient with the almost 10-month wait for his arrival to answer drug and gun-trafficking charges.

US officials had started to grumble when the Bruce Golding administration resisted its attempts to have the alleged Shower Posse boss extradited.

There had been rumblings during the past month over deals being hammered out for Coke to hand himself over to the US authorities here while he was on the run. The latest of these came with his capture on Wednesday last week along the Mandela Highway, where the Reverend Al Miller indicated that Coke had asked him to transport him to the US Embassy in Liguanea.

US marshals were already in the island Thursday morning when Dudus appeared in the local courts and waived his right to an extradition hearing.

Hours later, he was off to New York where by Friday, he was before the courts for a formal reading of the charges and the entering of a plea.

Coke, wearing a blue inmate smock and speaking softly, entered the plea during a brief appearance in a Manhattan federal court.

Asked by US District Judge Robert Patterson whether he understood the charges, the short and stocky defendant replied, "Yes, sir."

In court papers, New York prosecutors said Coke had conspired to distribute cocaine and marijuana throughout the eastern United States since 1994.

The indictment alleges that members of Coke's gang in Jamaica and their US counterparts "sold narcotics, including marijuana and crack cocaine, at Coke's direction".

Phone conversations

It says co-conspirators had recorded phone conversations with Coke about shipments of drugs and handguns.

Gang members would buy "firearms in the United States and ship those firearms to Jamaica", the indictment says.

It alleges that Coke would distribute the guns and cash as a way "to support and increase his authority and power in Kingston, Jamaica, and elsewhere" .

The papers also claim that drug dealers in the US regularly sent cash and goods, including clothing, firearms and electronics, to Coke as "tribute" payments, in recognition of his leadership and assistance.