Thirty Killed in Raids of Dudus' Kingston Camp

The extradition saga of Jamaican druglord Christopher "Dudus" Coke, leader of the ultra-violent South Florida-connected Shower Posse, has become yet more bloody today. The Associated Press is reporting that at least 30 people have been killed in gunfights between bandits, soldiers, and cops in the posse-controlled Tivoli Gardens slum in...

By Gus Garcia-Roberts

May 25, 2010

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The extradition saga of Jamaican druglord Christopher "Dudus" Coke, leader of the ultra-violent South Florida-connected Shower Posse, has become yet more bloody today. The Associated Press is reporting that at least 30 people have been killed in gunfights between bandits, soldiers, and cops in the posse-controlled Tivoli Gardens slum in Kingston.

The situation is chaotic and it's unclear what exactly is going on in Tivoli Gardens, or if Coke is even still there.

Jim Harter, a former special agent for the Bureau of Tobacco, Alcohol, and Firearms, tells Riptide that when the US attempted to extradite Coke's gangleader father Lester Lloyd Coke from Tivoli Gardens two decades ago, a ploy was used to lure him from the fortified slum.

Jamaican police charged the elder Coke with a murder they knew he hadn't committed, and then waited for him to show up at a police station with indignant lawyers in tow-- where he was cuffed for the US extradition.

It's too late for such tricks in Dudus' case. The standoff could either be squelched with violence within the next day or drag on for months or years as it did when the US pursued fugitive drug lord Pablo Escobar. Either way, the situation is bound to only get uglier.

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