Shower Posse

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Shower Posse
Founded1980s
Founding location Tivoli Gardens, Kingston, Jamaica
Years active1980s–present
Territory Jamaica, Canada, United States and United Kingdom
Ethnicity Jamaican
Membership1,500–2,000 in Jamaica and 4,000–5,000 in other countries
Activities Drug trafficking, arms trafficking, racketeering, and murder
Allies Jamaica Labour Party

Shower Posse is a Jamaican gang, started by Lester Lloyd Coke, which is involved in drug and arms smuggling. Its home is in Tivoli Gardens in Jamaica. It has several North American branches. The North American branches were first founded by Vivian Blake in the Canadian city of Toronto, Ontario. [1] The gang operates in expatriate Jamaican communities in the US states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the city of Miami, Florida. [1] [2] [3] [4]

Contents

Name

There are differing reports on the origin of the name. One theory is that it comes from the promises of its associated politicians to shower supporters with gifts. [5] Another view is that it is a reference to the gang showering opponents with bullets. [1] A third theory is that the gang got its name from the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) election slogan 'Shower', which was a response to the PNP's 'Power' that was coined from Manley's 'Power for the people' slogan in the 1970s. [6]

History

The Jamaica Labour Party-aligned Shower Posse has been provided with arms, training, and transport to the United States by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). [7]

On 4 August 1985, a gun battle erupted at a picnic attended by approximately 2,000 Jamaicans in Oakland, New Jersey, during which elements of the Shower Posse and Spangler Posse from Brooklyn and the Bronx fought with the Boston-based Dog Posse and Tel Aviv Posse. Three people were killed, nine were wounded, and police retrieved thirty-three handguns from the scene. [8]

The Shower Posse was involved in a drug war with the Junior Black Mafia in Southwest Philadelphia during the 1980s and early 1990s. [9]

In 1989, former member Charles "Little Nut" Miller was charged with drug trafficking but agreed to testify against other gang leaders in order to receive immunity. In his testimony – in which he implicated himself in nine murders – Miller revealed his connection to the JLP as a "political enforcer", as well as to the CIA, going as far to state that "the United States made me what I am." [10]

In 2009 the United States began to demand that Christopher Coke, then leader of the Shower Posse, with extensive and well-known links to the JLP, be extradited to New York, where he would face charges of smuggling drugs and weapons. [11] [12] Then prime minister of Jamaica, Bruce Golding, who was also the Member of Parliament for that district (West Kingston), initially questioned the legality of the request, claiming that warrantless wiretapping had been used to collect information on Coke. However, he eventually relented, after public indignation to what many Jamaicans viewed as a cover-up to protect a politically connected drug trafficker, and on 17 May 2010 an arrest warrant was issued for Coke, leading to a state of civil unrest within Kingston, and especially Tivoli Gardens. [13] [14] Coke was eventually arrested outside of Kingston on 22 June 2010. On Friday, 15 June 2012, a New York federal district court sentenced Coke to two consecutive sentences: 20 years for racketeering and conspiracy, and an additional three years for conspiracy to commit assault.

In January 2021, the former lieutenant of the Shower Posse, Harry "Harry Dog" McLeod, was shot and killed in an attack in Kingston. [15]

The 2014 novel A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James features a gang called Storm Posse, who share many features with Shower Posse, based in a fictionalised version of Tivoli Gardens named "Copenhagen City". [16]

Christopher Coke and the Shower Posse were the subject of an episode of the Netflix documentary series, Drug Lords , released in 2018. [17]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jamaica</span> Country in the Caribbean Sea

Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At 10,990 square kilometres (4,240 sq mi), it is the third largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about 145 km (90 mi) south of Cuba, 191 km (119 mi) west of Hispaniola, and 215 km (134 mi) south-east of the Cayman Islands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Jamaica</span>

The Caribbean Island of Jamaica was initially inhabited in approximately 600 AD or 650 AD by the Redware people, often associated with redware pottery. By roughly 800 AD, a second wave of inhabitance occurred by the Arawak tribes, including the Tainos, prior to the arrival of Columbus in 1494. Early inhabitants of Jamaica named the land "Xaymaca", meaning "land of wood and water". The Spanish enslaved the Arawak, who were ravaged further by diseases that the Spanish brought with them. Early historians believe that by 1602, the Arawak-speaking Taino tribes were extinct. However, some of the Taino escaped into the forested mountains of the interior, where they mixed with runaway African slaves, and survived free from first Spanish, and then English, rule.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Manley</span> 4th Prime Minister of Jamaica

Michael Norman Manley was a Jamaican politician who served as the fourth Prime Minister of Jamaica from 1972 to 1980 and from 1989 to 1992. Manley championed a democratic socialist program, and has been described as a populist. He remains one of Jamaica's most popular prime ministers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Seaga</span> Former Prime Minister of Jamaica (1930–2019)

Edward Philip George Seaga was a Jamaican politician and record producer. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Jamaica, from 1980 to 1989, and the leader of the Jamaica Labour Party from 1974 to 2005. He served as leader of the opposition from 1974 to 1980, and again from 1989 until January 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruce Golding</span> Prime Minister of Jamaica from 2007 2011

Orette Bruce Golding is a former Jamaican politician who served as eighth Prime Minister of Jamaica from 11 September 2007 to 23 October 2011. He is a member of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), which he led from 2005 to his resignation in 2011.

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A drug lord, drug baron, kingpin, or lord of drugs is a type of crime boss, who is in charge of a drug-trafficking network, organization, or enterprise.

Vivian Blake was a Jamaican drug kingpin who founded and operated the American operations of the Jamaican Shower Posse.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christopher Coke</span> Jamaican drug lord

Christopher Michael Coke, also known as Dudus, is a convicted Jamaican drug lord and the leader of the Shower Posse, a violent drug gang started by his father Lester Coke in Jamaica, which exported "large quantities" of marijuana and cocaine into the United States.

The 2010 Kingston unrest, dubbed locally the Tivoli Incursion, was an armed conflict between Jamaica's military and police forces in the country's capital Kingston, and the Shower Posse drug cartel. The conflict began on 23 May 2010 as security forces began searching for Christopher "Dudus" Coke, a major drug lord, after the United States requested his extradition, and the leader of the criminal gang that attacked several police stations. The violence, which largely took place over 24–25 May, killed at least 73 civilians and wounded at least 35 others. Four soldiers and police were also killed and more than 500 arrests were made, as Jamaican police and soldiers fought gunmen in the Tivoli Gardens district of Kingston.

Tivoli Gardens is a neighbourhood in Kingston, Jamaica. Developed as a renewal project between 1963 and 1965, the neighbourhood continued to suffer from poverty. By the late twentieth century it had become a center of drug trafficking activity and social unrest. Repeated confrontations took place between law enforcement and gunmen in the neighbourhood in 1997, 2001, 2005, 2008, and 2010.

David Patrick Rowe was a Jamaican-American lawyer, professor, media commentator, corruption watchdog, Commonwealth Caribbean country risk analyst and pioneer in the area of transnational law. He has spent most of his career as a litigator in Florida, along with serving as an adjunct professor at the University of Miami School of Law since 1989. He is one of the world's leading voices on the law of the Commonwealth Caribbean and the political economy of the wider Caribbean region, and his scholarly work and quotations have appeared in periodicals around the world. He is also frequently used as a media consultant with international publications, including the Miami Herald and The New York Times, among others.

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<i>A Brief History of Seven Killings</i> 2014 novel by Marlon James

A Brief History of Seven Killings is the third novel by Jamaican author Marlon James. It was published in 2014 by Riverhead Books. The novel spans several decades and explores the attempted assassination of Bob Marley in Jamaica in 1976 and its aftermath, through the crack wars in New York City in the 1980s and a changed Jamaica in the 1990s.

On December 3, 1976, seven armed men raided the residence of reggae musician Bob Marley in Kingston, Jamaica, two days before Marley was to stage a concert in an attempt to quell recent violence. Politicians from across the political spectrum hoped to capitalize on Marley's support. While Marley remained neutral, many viewed him as tacitly supporting the prime minister Michael Manley and his democratic socialist People's National Party (PNP). Marley and four others were shot, but all survived.

The Jamaican political conflict is a long-standing feud between right-wing and left-wing elements in the country, often exploding into violence. The Jamaican Labour Party (JLP) and the People's National Party (PNP) have fought for control of the island for years and the rivalry has encouraged urban warfare in Kingston. Each side believes the other to be controlled by foreign elements; the JLP is said to be backed by the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the PNP is said to have been backed by the Soviet Union and Cuba.

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Lester Lloyd Coke, commonly known as Jim Brown, was a Jamaican drug lord and the founder of the Shower Posse, a gang based out of the Tivoli Gardens garrison community in West Kingston. Coke was identified by the Netflix documentary ReMastered: Who Shot the Sheriff as present and a party to the shooting of Bob Marley on 3 December 1976.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "No remedy for 'Posse'; International drug cartel calling the shots in Toronto's northwest end." Drew Halfnight. National Post. 8 May 2010. p. A14.
  2. ↑ James R. Zazzali (1988). "Organized Crime: 25 Years After Valachi". The Nevada Observer. Archived from the original on 16 November 2006.
  3. ↑ "The Mafia in New Jersey - AFRICAN-AMERICANS - JAMAICANS - AFRO-LINEAL ORGANIZED CRIME". www.mafianj.com. Archived from the original on 4 September 2012. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
  4. ↑ L Gunst (13 November 1989). "Jamaican Drug Gangs: Johnny-Too-Bad and the Sufferers". Nation. United States Department of Justice. Archived from the original on 28 May 2023.
  5. ↑ "Police raise curtain on the 'Shower Posse'" Colin Freeze. The Globe and Mail. 5 May 2010. p. A11.
  6. ↑ "The Cokes then and now - News". Jamaica Observer. Archived from the original on 20 February 2015. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
  7. ↑ Edmonds, Kevin (2016). "Guns, gangs and garrison communities in the politics of Jamaica". Race & Class. 57 (4). SAGE Journals: 54–74. doi:10.1177/0306396815624864. S2CID   146933185.
  8. ↑ Investigations, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Governmental Affairs. Permanent Subcommittee on (1988). Organized Crime: 25 Years After Valachi : Hearings Before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Governmental Affairs. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 726. Archived from the original on 28 May 2023.
  9. ↑ Seth Ferranti (25 October 2011). "Street legends: Aaron Jones". GorillaConvict.com. Archived from the original on 28 May 2023.
  10. ↑ "The CIA, the Cold War, and Cocaine: The Connections of Christopher "Dudus" Coke". NACLA. Archived from the original on 21 December 2012. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
  11. ↑ "Tension in Tivoli as US awaits word on Dudus's extradition - News". Jamaica Observer. Archived from the original on 20 February 2015. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
  12. ↑ "EDITORIAL - This is not Somalia, we hope". The Gleaner. 9 September 2009. Archived from the original on 9 September 2009.
  13. ↑ "Jamaica Declares State of Emergency". CBS News. The Associated Press. 23 May 2010. Archived from the original on 28 May 2023. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
  14. ↑ "Jamaica Declares State of Emergency". The New York Times. Reuters. 24 May 2010. Archived from the original on 6 January 2023.
  15. ↑ "'Harry Dog', Dudus' 'ex-lieutenant', shot dead in West Kingston". Loop News. 31 January 2021. Archived from the original on 1 February 2021. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
  16. ↑ Lazar, Zachary (23 October 2014). "'A Brief History of Seven Killings' - Marlon James". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 14 October 2021. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
  17. ↑ "Christopher Coke: Jamaica's Narco Prince". Drug Lords. Season 2. Episode 3. Internet Movie Database. Archived from the original on 28 May 2023.
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