U.S. Extradition Effort Strains Relationship With Jamaica

April 25, 2010
By MARC LACEY

MEXICO CITY — Christopher Coke’s nicknames are numerous: General, President, Shortman, Dudus. But the one that American law enforcement officials say sums up his illicit activities best of all is simply Mr. Coke.

Mr. Coke, 41, is accused of running a major cocaine and marijuana trafficking operation from one of the most rugged neighborhoods in Kingston, Jamaica, according to American law enforcement officials and a federal indictment unsealed last year. Proceeds from drug sales in New York and other major American cities have been used to funnel guns and cash from the United States back to a wharf that Mr. Coke controls adjacent to Tivoli Gardens, his stronghold on the west side of the Jamaican capital, the authorities say.

No run-of-the-mill wanted man, Mr. Coke is also a powerful player in Jamaican politics, so much so that the State Department’s attempt to extradite him has rattled relations between the United States and Jamaica. Mr. Coke is so influential that intermediaries managed to seek a resolution of his legal predicament directly with top aides to President Obama.

Jamaica has extradited many criminal suspects to the United States, 15 of them last year alone. But the United States’ effort to extradite Mr. Coke in August created a dilemma for the governing Jamaica Labour Party and particularly the prime minister, Bruce Golding, who represents Tivoli Gardens in Parliament.

Both of Jamaica’s political parties have fostered ties with neighborhood gangs, who turn out the vote in exchange for political favors. Mr. Coke and his Shower Posse are linked with the Labour Party, according to American and Jamaican officials. The State Department has suggested that it is Mr. Coke’s influence with top ruling party politicians that is impeding his extradition.

“Jamaica’s delay in processing the U.S. extradition request for a major suspected drug and firearms trafficker with reported ties to the ruling party highlights the potential depth of corruption in the government,” said a State Department counternarcotics report released in March.

The Jamaican government is battling back. Mr. Golding has called the American extradition request flawed because the wiretapping of Mr. Coke by the Jamaican authorities that was the basis for the indictment was passed from a Jamaican police constable to the American government without proper approval. The Jamaican government has demanded that the Americans name the officer so they can charge him.

Mr. Coke’s lawyer, Tom Tavares-Finson, who is also a senator representing the governing party, is dismissive of the case against Mr. Coke, whom he describes as a father, legitimate businessman and community leader, not a hardened gang leader.

“I could not extradite a dog from the United States on this evidence,” Mr. Tavares-Finson said. “All his business enterprises are subject to the scrutiny of the Jamaican government. This is not some banana republic beyond the woebegone.”

As for whether Mr. Coke has run afoul of the law in the past, Mr. Tavares-Finson said that, at most, he might have been arrested for smoking marijuana as a child. “I have represented him for many years, and I have no knowledge of him having any criminal convictions in Jamaica,” he said.

Anxious to show that the government is not shielding fugitives, Mr. Golding has criticized the United States as not doing enough to quell the illegal trade in firearms into Jamaica. He has also proposed initiatives to control gangs and reduce crime. Last year, Jamaica had its bloodiest year on record, with 1,672 murders.

Mr. Coke’s legal fix harkens back to a similar case involving his father, Lester Coke. Known as Jim Brown, he was a leader of the Shower Posse, which was blamed in the 1980s for trafficking in drugs and killing those who got in its way. The United States had sought to extradite Lester Coke to face narcotics and murder charges, but he died in a mysterious fire in his prison cell in 1992 before he was flown away.

Marching at Lester Coke’s funeral was none other than Edward Seaga, the longtime Jamaican prime minister who was head of the Jamaica Labour Party, which was in the opposition at the time. The son has shown that his political might is just as strong.

Last fall, a politically influential Jamaican lawyer, Harold Brady, hired on behalf of the Jamaican government the American law firm of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips to discuss “political and economic matters” with members of the Obama administration, according to documents filed with the Justice Department. Meetings were held with top White House and State Department officials.

But after the controversy over the Coke extradition exploded, the Jamaican government said it had not been involved in the hiring of Manatt. The firm quickly canceled the contract. “The firm was never employed by or did work for Christopher Coke,” Monte M. Lemann, Manatt’s general counsel, said in a statement. Peter Phillips, a lawmaker for the opposition People’s National Party and the former national security minister, is pressing the government to clarify who exactly hired Manatt. “It seems at minimum that the government of Jamaica lent their name to an effort to represent the interests of an accused person,” Mr. Phillips said.

Earlier versions of this article reported that the Jamaican government said it had been involved in the hiring of an American law firm. The government actually said it had not been involved. Earlier versions also mistakenly referred to Peter Phillips as Mr. Peters.