Chapter5
Global Criminal Link
This chapter seeks to build on the understanding of how the
Jamaican Gangs have extended their network and influences to the United Kingdom
the United States and Canada. After the infamous 1980 General Election
politicians in Jamaica disassociated themselves publicly with these criminal
gangs while privately soliciting their assistance to maintain their political
base in the garrisons. As a result the gangsters turned their activities to the
global drug trade forging alliances with migrant communities in the
above mentioned countries. The war on drugs spearheaded by the Regan
administration had two effects the first was that the Seaga administration
collaborated with the US government to undertake a massive cannabis eradication
programme in Jamaica. This move hit especially the rural cannabis farmers hard
in the pocket. Secondly the traditional cocaine transhipment port used by the
South American drug lords were sealed off and an alternative route was found
Via the Caribbean and as a result the Jamaican Drug Barons seized upon the
opportunity presented and shifted their activities to cocaine smuggling. They
formed a strategic alliance with their mainly Colombians and Panamanian
counterparts and begun using the island as a passage way and transhipment port
for the illegal but lucrative cocaine trade intended for the European and North
American markets. One of the criticisms of the war on drugs spearheaded by the
Regan administration was that it focused on supply reduction while the
Americans appetite for drugs consumption remained the same.
By 1980 the gangsters in the garrisons recognised that the
local political hustling was insufficient to go around more over the cocaine
trade was a more profitable means of financing their activities lured by the
lucrative lifestyles. They began to muscle in on the cocaine trade and venture
out to the cities of North America and Europe to forge their vicious reputation
and extend their influence. With cocaine awash on the island they began the
process of recruiting mainly women from poor and vulnerable families in Jamaica
as drug mules to the USA and Europe. On the back of this activates the Jamaican
gangs created satellite networks in the major cities of North America and
Europe. They wrestled the cocaine trade away from indigenous gangs and foisted
their interest by vicious acts of gun violence, callus murders, extortion and
racketeering.
The Jamaican Posse is a loose coalition of Gangs based
predominantly in New York and Toronto Ontario. It is widely acclaimed that
these gangs are affiliated to the two major political parties in Jamaica-The
Peoples National Party and the Jamaica Labour Party. Their first involvement
can be traced back to the 1980s where they began with gun running then
extending to drug smuggling and racketeering. The Jamaican Possies are known
for ferocious gun battles with the police. They have a reputation of committing
drive by shootings stemming from disputes over drug turf. The Posse members are
known for ritualised killings of members who steal drug proceeds or profits.
Ritual violent acts have included the use of laundry irons, chain saw, hammer
and nails to pulverise their assailants to death. They have and extreme violent
code of conduct against their opponents or among those within their ranks that
step out of line.
The most famous of all is the Notorious Shower Posse a JLP
aligned gang with its head quarters in West Kingston run by Lester Lloyd Coke
Alias “Jim Brown” a garrison Don and political enforcer. The international arm
was run North America by a middle class Jamaican business man turned gangster
called Vivian Blake.Coke was believed to have been responsible for the deaths of
68 alleged murders that included 13 police officers over a six month period in
1090.Coke was arrested on suspicion of 14 alleged murders but walked away
scotch free by making witnesses disappear on his trial date. Lester Lloyd Coke
and 60 of his hence men were cornered after and arrested after a blazing gun
battle with the Jamaican Police. The arrest triggered extradition proceedings
in the Jamaican court where he was wanted for murder and drug trafficking.
While waiting to be extradited to the US his jail cell mysteriously caught
afire and he was burnt to death. While Coke was awaiting extradition in prison
his son Mark Coke took control of the gang and was cut down by a hail of
bullets by a rival gangster this sparked a bloody feud for the control of the
Jamaican drug market. Coke is survived by three sons that head the West
Kingston gang but they maintain a low profile.
Coke counterpart Vivian Blake continue to deny that he is
the leader of the North American Wing of the Shower Posse according to him his
label stems from the constant stereotyping of Jamaican men. Prior to his entry
into gang land activities he was described as a poet, writer and businessman.
He is born of a union between a Jewish housewife and a Jamaican merchant
tailor. He spent a part of his early years in London, United Kingdom attending
a Catholic School. His family returned to Jamaica where he completed High
School in Jamaica with satisfactory
academic credentials. It is widely believed that Blake used his upper class
status and his political connections to steer attention away from the Shower
Posse corrupt criminal activities. Blake turned his activities to get a piece
of the American drug market by establishing a base in Miami which over time
spawned the major capital of the US to include New York while back in Jamaica
Lester Coke ran the enforcement arm of
the feared organisation back in Jamaica.
Over a period of eight years he expanded his influence in
North America by wielding his sphere of influence backed up by acts of
brutality. It is believed that he was responsible for about 1,400 deaths and
the criminal empire was valued at about 2.5 billion US dollars. This drew the
attention of the US Drug enforcement agency and the Federal Buro of
Investigation( FBI) By 1989 Blake’s name headed the list of 38 members of the
Notorious Shower Posse wanted on an indictment by the US authority on
racketeering,smuggling and murder charges. He escaped being cornered by the US
authority boarding a cruise ship destined for Jamaica. He remained free in
Jamaica for five years fighting the extradition proceedings but he case was
loaded against him as one of his lieutenants was a vital witness in the case.
During his extradition proceedings in the Jamaican court Blake remained a
legend of Robin Hood fame by the Jamaican people who organised rallies and
protest demanding his release. The legal battle ended in 1998 when he was
secretly handed over to the DEA in Miami. After a plea bargain arrangement in
which Blake provided evidence against his accuser he received a 28 years
sentence and released to the Jamaica in 2008 amidst a media fanfare and
cheering from his West Kingston adorers.
Other members of the notorious Shower posse were caught by
the US authority and are serving sentences in US federal Prisons. For example
Richard “Story Teller” Morrison a high ranking aid of Cooke and Blake was
extradited and sent to prison and is now serving a term of 30 years to life on
murder and racketeering. Maxwell Bogle who had been listed as one of the world’s
100 most dangerous men in 2001and was sentenced to 58 years to life in absentia
was caught in the same year and is behind bars. Another extremely low ranking
lieutenant Rycliffe Bruce on the FBI
most wanted list for gunning down a DJ in a crowded dance with two automatic
pistols in his hands.
Jamaican gang activities have extended itself to Canada the
Malvern Crew and the Galloway crew wreaked havoc in the Scarborough area of
Toronto committing random acts of violence gunning down innocent bystanders in
an attempt to intimidate and assert their badness honour status. The terrorised
the Toronto areas for about two years. One of the most feared gangsters that
headed the Galloway Gang was Tyshan Riley a 23 years man of Jamaican descent.
He was described by the Canadian Mounted Troupe as the worst killer that the
City had ever seen. Things came to a head for the gangsters when they gunned
down an innocent bystander in 2004.A joint Canadian Police Command was
assembled code named Project Pathfinder. It consisted of officers from the
Homicide Squad, the Special Investigation Service, the Intelligence Bureau and
Prosecutors from the Attorney Generals Office. The officers swoop down on the
gangs and Tyshan Riley and Phillip Atkins along with seven other gang members
were arrested. Project Pathfinder according to a Canadian police source got its
name from a Nissan SUV used by one of the alleged gangster who is from a
Jamaican decent. Most of the men caught in the police sting are behind bars
serving lengthy prison sentences for charges ranging from intimidating witness,
gangsterism, robberies, and murder.
The United Kingdom and England in specific is vulnerable to
the activities of Jamaican gangsters and their satellite network due to its
large West Indian migrant population made up mainly of Jamaicans. The first
wave of immigrants(492 persons)that formed the British African Caribbean
community arrived in 1948 from Jamaica on a Ship known as the Empire Wind rush
the first generation of these Caribbean immigrant are often referred to as the
wind rush generation. They were for the most part hard working people who
migrated to seek work and helped to rebuild the United Kingdom after the
ravages of the Second World War. Most of these immigrants settled around South
London and made Brixton their unofficial capital. The town of Brixton is often
described as the soul of black Britain. It is famous for the Brixton riot of
1980, Nelson Mandela visited the town in 1996 and a street is named in his
honour. A square in the centre of the town has been named and dedicated to the
memory of the Wind rush Generation contribution to the development of the
United Kingdom. This historic and proud contribution to the development of
British life is now overshadowed by the activities of Jamaican Gangs who have
stretched their influence across England and have forged their reputation by
drug dealing and several episodes of gruesome blood -letting.
In 2003 things came to a head so much that the Independent a
respected British news paper broke the story that around 200 “hard core
yardies” are based in Lambeth South London. The paper recorded that they were
operating as members of the “firehouse posse” or Brixton “Cartel crew”. Most of
the gangs connected to the Jamaican Migrant communities in the united Kingdom
are loosely called yardies the operate and integrate themselves across the UK
among the migrant communities and have recruited their members from mostly
recent Jamaican migrants and second generation Jamaicans living in the United
Kingdom.Peter Walsh the author of Gang war makes an important point that term
“yardie” has become so ubiquitous so that it means any Jamaican, African or black
gang. These gangs are so entrenched in London that a famous estate in Brixton
is referred to as “Little Tivoli” after Tivoli gardens a JLP garrison in
Jamaica. Other prolific Jamaican influenced gangs are: the lock city crew, the
much love crew in Harlsden,the Hackney posse in East London, The young Peck ham
boys ,the Peck ham boys, the ghetto boys in Lewis ham, the murder zone crew, The
poverty driven crew and the paid in full crew. Turf war is rife among yardie
gangs and the recent trend is the younger gang members breaking of to form
their own unit. For example the young Peckham boys broke away and form their
own unit and were said to be involved in the murder of a ten year old African
youth Damilola Taylor.
For both old and young Jamaican influenced gangsters
automatic and semi- automatic guns is a necessity. They move from house to
house at nights making it hard for the London Metropolitan Police to track
them. This took place after a spate of shootings in the black community in
London in the mid nineteen nineties. The Metropolitan Police launched Operation
Trident consisting of an elite core of armed police officer to deal with the
spate of shooting and gun related murders across London. At that time Cold
Harbour Lane in Brixton was reporting three shootings per week along with a
number of shootings in Lambeth and Brent. By 2001 things got out of hand so
much that the police in a desperate bid to stem the escalation shot dead Derek
Bennett a man of Jamaican decent after brandishing a gun shaped cigarette lighter
in public. Despite wide spread outcry of murder by his relatives. A coroner’s
inquest was held and a verdict of unlawful killing was handed down by the
coroner and subsequently held upon appeal.
The killings continued unabated without the police making
inroads with the recovery of firearms and operation Trident focused their swoop
around the Broxton area in an attempt to deter gangsters from carrying firearms
while appealing to the public for information this created a positive effect in
terms of containment but by 2006 Brixton was again in the headlines. In
September 2006 Brixton was the scene of a widely reported shooting of two boys
in a McDonald Restaurant on Brixton Road Acre lane.
The new breed of Jamaican style yardie gangsters and
“wannabees” in the United Kingdom is propelled by the growing availability of
three commodities: greed, drugs and guns. The new trend is for the more
powerful urban crew of gangsters to deliberately encroach in nearby northern
cities. The headline making conflict that earned Manchester the infamous label
of “Britain’s Chicago” in 2004- was a chilling episode aptly captured by Peter
Walsh the author of Gangs War: The Inside Story of the Manchester Gangs and one
of the authors of the book Cocky, about British drug baron Curtis Warren.
Gangsters on mountain bikes chased each other down a Manchester hospital
corridor as staff bravely tried to barricade doors and protect patience who
were members of the Goosh Close Gang and their rivals the Long Sight Crew
hunted each other through the wards masked in hoods, balaclavas and bandannas.
The incident occurred because a member of each gang had been taken to hospitals
with gun shot wounds in an incident that also involved the killing of Leon
Johnson a Goochie member who had been mowed down in a hit an run attack. As a
result of the incident ten young men were later jailed for either affair or
pubic order offences. Things died down between both gangs but in July 2005 they
were at it again: the Goosh and the Dooddington gang fought hand in hand and
traded gun shots at each other in broad day light in the Manchester city
centre.
The West Indian involvement has been key to the spread of
gangs in many UK cities. A 2003 report suggested Jamaican Yardies had invaded
Britain at an ‘alarming rate’ and their control of the crack trade had
gradually spread north, reaching as far as Aberdeen. Of 43 police forces in
England and Wales, 36 reported a problem with Yardie gangs. Yet in spite of
their almost insane brutality, the Yardies have not always fared well against
home grown rivals. In Birmingham, Jamaica interlopers were faced down by the
‘homeboys’ of Hands worth and Lozells: the Burger Bar Boys and the Johnson
Crew. The Burgers and the Johnnies, however, then turned there guns on each other
in a tit-for tat spiral. That culminating in the tragic killing of Charlene
Ellis and Letisha Shakespeare at a New Years day party. Far from cowing the
gangs, such high-profile incidents seem to heighten their bravado. The
Birmingham gangsters have even made and distributed DVDs of their exploit
The city of Leeds was relatively free of violence until the
murder of towering gangsters Clifton “Junior” Bryan in 2002 before that he
survive a close assassination bid when he was lured in a house with another
man, Dennis Wilson, who was shot in the head. Their bodies were bundled into
the trunk of a car which was later found abandoned in a district in the
outskirts of Leeds.
The clutches and influence of the Jamaican Yardie gangs
which has its roots in the political garrisons of Jamaica have been exported
and entrenched in the capitals and cities of North America and Europe. Hundreds
of deportees have been repatriated by European and North American law
enforcement agencies. Some of these deportees have found their way back to
their point of deportation shortly after. Others continue to contribute to the
burgeoning crime statistics in Jamaica yet a few have been rehabilitated and
have turned their life around. The legend and reputation of Jamaican influence
gang activity is etched on the mind of law enforcement agencies globally who
often shudder and cringe when confronted by their fearless activities.
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