``Arresting Christopher Coke would require a major police and military operation,'' said a U.S. law enforcement official who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. ``It would take hundreds of people.''
So this anonymous "US law enforcement official" is an expert on JA politics, security and law enforcement capabilities? Or is the author just making up a quote. Amazing, the amount of rubbish that gets published in these publications.
May 29, 2010 Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke of Jamaica may seek political asylum overseas James Bone, Kingston, Jamaica
An alleged Jamaican drug baron at the centre of this week’s uprising in Kingston is seeking political asylum abroad, according to a British solicitor who has spoken to him.
Hannah Harris Barrington said she talked to Christopher “Dudus” Coke seven times as loyalists barricaded his stronghold in the Kingston slum of Tivoli Gardens to block his extradition to the US. She said Mr Coke, 42, reputed to be head of the Shower Posse drug gang, feared that security forces wanted to kill him to prevent him talking about his ties to powerful politicians.
Mr Coke’s bastion is the constituency of Bruce Golding, Jamaica’s Prime Minister and Labour Party leader, who tried for months to shield him from extradition before ordering his arrest on May 17. “He wishes to seek political asylum. He told me he is willing to turn himself in,” Ms Harris Barrington, who had a practice in Deptford, southeast London, until two years ago, told The Times. “He is being persecuted because he gave Bruce Golding his seat in Parliament.
“He is willing to disclose all the infomation that he is going to be killed for. He is willing to tell me everything about the Prime Minister — how the Prime Minister came to become an MP from that area,” she said. With a huge military manhunt under way, which has already resulted in the deaths of 73 people in Tivoli Gardens and elsewhere, Mr Coke may have reason to worry. His father, Lester Coke, also known as “Jim Brown”, ran the Shower Posse during the “drug wars” in the 1980s in the US in which the gang was blamed for 1,400 murders. Despite his political connections, Lester Coke was eventually arrested, but died in a 1992 prison fire before he could be extradited to the US — amid speculation that powerful figures wanted to stop him talking about his political ties.
Ms Harris Barrington, the daughter of a Jamaican bishop, moved to the island from Britain in 2008 to become a lawyer, pastor and human rights acti-vist. She made contact with Mr Coke as the stand-off grew last weekend. She said that he appeared to be in Jamaica last Saturday because she arranged to meet him — although the meeting never took place.
She last spoke to him on Monday, as hundreds of soldiers stormed his slum redoubt. But she said she does not know his whereabouts. “He is willing to hand himself in, but not to Mr Golding because he is going to die. There will be some story — a prisoner is going to stab him or something,” she said.
“I said, ‘I think you need to seek the assistance of another international state’. We did not actually use the words asylum, but it is asylum.
“I know he wants international assistance. He told me he is willing to give himself in.”
Ms Harris Barrington said Mr Coke would clearly not seek asylum in the US, where he is listed as one of the “world’s most dangerous” drug lords and faces trafficking and gun-running charges that carry a possible life term.
Speculation in the local press has suggested he could escape to Venezuela, where the Government may protect him from the US. But Paul Beswick, one of Mr Coke’s official lawyers, told The Times that he was not aware of any attempt by his client to seek political asylum.
Mr Coke’s lawyers are reported to have been in discussions with the US Embassy in Jamaica about a possible surrender, and US Drug Enforcement Agency officials are reported to be on stand-by to fly in and collect him. But Mr Beswick would not comment on any talks with US officials. “The best I can say is that various discussions are in progress in an attempt to resolve the current impasse. I could not be more specific,” he said.
There are countless rumours about Mr Coke’s whereabouts. US sources told ABC television that they believe he slipped into neighbouring Denham Town or Jones Town. Local reports suggested that he may have sought the protection of a friendly “don”, or crime figure, in nearby May Pen.
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnew...n-Colombia.html World's biggest drugs 'super cartel' smashed by US authorities in Colombia The world’s biggest drugs and money laundering "super cartel" in Colombia has been smashed by the American government, officials said.
By Andrew Hough Published: 7:00PM BST 18 Jun 2010 "Don Claudio" is arrested by US anti-drug agents as part of a major operation in South America. He is believed to be one of the kingpins of the "super cartel". Photo: CBS NEWS
Anti-drug agents arrested and charged dozens of members of the powerful Colombian cartel, including two alleged major kingpins, after a series of raids across South America.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, estimated the cartel made an estimated $5 billion (£3.37bn) profit from their trade over the past few years.
Agents involved in Operation Pacific Rim alleged on Friday that the gang trafficked cocaine to every continent except Antarctica, with drugs bound for Europe and Britain smuggled through Spain.
They believe the gang were responsible for almost half of the cocaine on American streets, or more than 912 tonnes with an estimated street value of about $24 billion (£16.2 billion).
The drug cartels buy coca from Colombia's peasant farmers for about £250 per pound. After being refined into cocaine, the same quantity can then be sold for about £15,000 in Europe.
They are alleged to have made so much money they could not launder it all, CBS News reported.
Among those arrested were "Don Claudio” in eastern Columbia and "Don Lucho", who was captured in Argentina. Both are now awaiting extradition back to the US. The lawyer for "Don Lucho" said that his client had no connections with drugs and was a Guatemalan businessman.
Agents and Colombian authorities are continuing their hunt for other cartel members.
The cartel is said to have operated sophisticated drugs labs in the country’s jungles, engaged ruthless hit men and used submarines to transport the drugs all over the world.
"Their tentacles reach all over the globe," one ICE agent, who declined to be named, told the American broadcaster said.
"It's mind-boggling the kind of profit these guys were producing. They invest in businesses, big investments, apartment complexes, office buildings.
"But there's so much left over that they have to do something with this cash. Sometimes all that's left is to hoard it and hide it."
William Brownfield, the U.S. Ambassador to Colombia, said the operation began last September at Buenaventura, a busy Colombian port, after officials intercepted a suspicious fertilizer container that was later found with more than $28million (£19million) worth of shrink-wrapped cash.
An ICE spokeswoman was unavailable for comment as was a Colombian government spokesman.
It is a significant boost to the American government’s high-profile war on drugs, after Barack Obama, the US President, announced a new push against central and South American drugs cartels.
He last year declared that US would confront the drug cartels that were "sowing chaos in our communities".
It is also a significant victory for the Colombian government ahead of next week's second round of the local presidential elections.
On Thursday, Antonio Maria Costa, the U.N. drug and crime czar warned that international crime syndicates posed a growing threat to global security.
She told a high-level General Assembly meeting in New York that demand for illegal drugs, diamonds and other items is fueling transnational organised crime.
Wasn't one current minister's car used by a wanted deported Spanish Town convict until he was balsted in the chest one night in Kingston?
This is a good turn of events in Jamaica's history. Either this or we sign up a retired dictator. _________________________________________________________________
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