NY judge hands down 23years to Jamaican drug lord

(CNS): According to press reports from New York, Jamaican drug lord Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke (43) has received a 23 year prison sentence following his guilty plea to charges racketeering and conspiracy. The sentence handed down Friday morning was not unexpected despite the Coke’s pleas for leniency and his plea to the lesser charges. District judge Robert Patterson handed down the maximum prison term following a hearing last month where several witnesses gave damaging testimony. Before Coke was eventually extradited to the US to face charges more than 70 people were killed during a violent stand-off in his home base of Tivoli Gardens, Kingston.

Coke's fall from the undisputed don of the Jamaican underworld to a US felon started in September 2009, with an extradition request from the United States which led to a protracted dispute between the governments of Jamaica and the US.  The dispute lasted for almost a year and ended with then Prime Minister Bruce Golding acceding to the US request and sending both the Jamaica Defence Force and the Jamaica Constabulary Force into Tivoli Gardens to arrest him.

Coke was not captured in the offensive, but he was held about a month later, allegedly disguised with a woman's wig, in the company of clergyman Al Miller.