NEW YORK, Mar 12: US authorities say Jamaican drug kingpin Christopher “Dudus” Coke was so ruthless that he once ordered a rival killed with a chainsaw.
However, another episode left a more lasting impression with the general public: He was arrested wearing a curly black wig.
A mug shot of Coke wearing the wig as a disguise while on the run went viral on the Internet after his capture in Jamaica during a bloody siege of his ghetto stronghold in 2010 that left more than 70 dead. At the time, he waived extradition to the United States and vowed to fight drug trafficking, gun smuggling, racketeering and other charges.
But following a guilty plea last year, Coke faces up to 23 years in prison at sentencing this week in federal court in Manhattan.
The 43-year-old Coke has sought mercy in a letter to the judge, seven handwritten pages that in tone are formal and polite but in substance barely touch upon a litany of accusations painting him as a cold-blooded killer.
“Good day to you, sir,” he wrote. “I am humbly asking if you could be lenient on me.”
Prosecutors have argued that leniency isn’t an option. They want Coke to serve the maximum term and be deported.
Coke was a divisive figure in Jamaica, where he followed in the footsteps of his father, Lester Lloyd Coke, better known as Jim Brown, a leader of the notorious Shower Posse during the 1980s cocaine wars. Authorities say he took over the organisation when his father, also sought in the United States, died in a mysterious fire in a Jamaican prison cell in 1992.
Once in power, Coke became a folk hero to some followers in the West Kingston slum of Tivoli Gardens. He listed his good deeds in his letter to the judge—throwing Easter parties for seniors, passing out school supplies and Christmas gifts to children and starting a school to teach computer skills to the disadvantaged. (Agencies)
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