Dudus criminals in Kingston turned slum into 'fortress festooned with booby traps'
Criminals loyal to the fugitive international drug baron Christopher 'Dudus' Coke turned his stronghold in the Jamaican capital Kingston into a fortress, according to police.
From Neil Tweedie in KingstonPublished: 4:53PM BST 29 May 2010
Stung by allegations of summary executions and other abuses, the Jamaican authorities have published pictures of devices found in the Tivoli Gardens area of the city. Explosives jacketed with metal fragments were found attached to barricades and on approach routes into the waterfront slum district, some of them operated by control wires. They said the slum was festooned with explosive booby traps intended for soldiers and police sent in to arrest him.
Gunmen were also said to have disguised themselves as women.
"They were very well organized, they knew what they were doing," said Colonel Rocky Meade of the Jamaican Defence Force. "We encountered very sophisticated defensive layouts." Heavy fighting lasting some 12 hours followed the start of the operation to seize Coke, who is accused by the American authorities of masterminding a criminal empire stretching from Kingston to the streets of New York.
Washington has been demanding Coke's extradition on drugs and firearms trafficking offences for months, but the Labour government of prime minister Bruce Golding acted only on Monday.
The result was 73 civilian deaths in addition to one soldier and two policemen killed, as well as scores of injuries and some 500 arrests.
Detainees are being held in the national sports stadium in Kingston, while decomposing corpses have been left piled up in makeshift coffins. Critics of the government allege the death toll is actually in excess of a hundred and that bodies have been buried secretly to disguise the fact, but the police deny conducting any burials. Initially, only a handful of firearms were recovered. That number has increased to two dozen.
Rumours abound in Kingston concerning Coke's fate, with suggestions that he has fled abroad or is dead. But the Jamaican police believe he is alive and in hiding on the island.
"The best intelligence we have is that Coke is still within the jurisdiction," said police commissioner Owen Ellington.
Jamaica's gangs are intimately linked with the country's two main political parties, and Coke Tivoli stronghold lies within Mr Golding's constituency.
There have been suggestions that influential figures in Jamaican politics would prefer Coke dead to prevent him telling all to US prosecutors.
"We do not issue shoot-to-kill orders," said commissioner Ellington. "Our modus operandi is to arrest Mr Coke on the warrant and bring him before a court of justice." Concerns remain, however. Coke's father Lloyd, the previous 'don' of Tivoli, was killed in a mysterious fire while awaiting extradition to the US in a Jamaican prison in 1991. Earlier this week, troops searching for Coke stormed a house in the affluent Kirkland Heights area of Kingston. The occupant, Keith Clarke, the brother of a former MP, was killed, and four soldiers wounded.
Edward Seaga, the former Labour prime minister, considered by some to be responsible for the infiltration of gangs into Jamaican public life, has called for Mr Golding's resignation over the attack on Tivoli. Commenting on the continuing security operation in the area, which has resulted in residents being effectively imprisoned in their homes while short of food and water, he said: "I cannot think of any reason to cause the government to continue with this very, very wicked act."
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