Jamaica: drug kingpin 'may have fled country'
Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke, the alleged drug kingpin at the centre of the Jamaican unrest, may have fled the country, according to the government.
Coke had months to stockpile weapons in his slum stronghold while the premier wavered over US demands for his extradition.
“I could not say if he is in Jamaica,” Information Minister Daryl Vaz said of Coke, who is known as “Dudus.” “It’s very difficult to tell.”
Police and soldiers who fought their way into the barricaded Tivoli Gardens slum in gritty West Kingston were conducting a door-to-door search, and the government reported calm Wednesday. Coke’s lawyer has declined to confirm his whereabouts.
Gray smoke was rising from recently extinguished fires inside Tivoli Gardens. Sporadic gunfire rang out elsewhere in West Kingston and security forces barred journalists from entering the battle zones around the capital on Jamaica’s south coast, far from the tourist resorts on the north shore of the Caribbean island.
The violence did not surprise island police and community groups who warned that Coke had been stockpiling weapons and preparing to defend himself since the US demanded his extradition last August. According to the US indictment, he has built a private arsenal of firearms smuggled in by gang members in the United States, sharing guns with other criminals to solidify his power as a major underworld boss.
“The situation at Tivoli is dreadful, but it’s been something that’s been simmering for a long, long time. And everybody knew that if they made the move for Coke that there would be trouble,” said Susan Goffe, a spokesman for local human rights group Jamaicans for Justice.
Fighting between police, the military and drug gangs has left at least 50 dead in Jamaica as Bruce Golding, the prime minister, vowed to restore calm after three days of violent clashes in the capital Kingston.
Hospital sources said that the dead and injured were mainly civilians caught up in the violence as troops fanned out across the city hunting an alleged drug kingpin.
Mr Golding vowed the security forces would restore law and order - three days after his government declared a state of emergency amid the worst violence to hit the Caribbean nation in decades.
"The government deeply regrets the loss of lives of members of the security forces, and those of innocent law abiding citizens who were caught in the cross fire," he told the House of Representatives.
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