Gangs – Page 36 – The Pen Hustle With Brandy Cavalli

Former Police Chief Testifies That Shower Posse Stockpiled Weapons & Explosives

Former police chief yesterday revealed that in the last decade, the west Kingston-based ‘Shower Posse’, or ‘Presidential Click’ gang – under the direction of Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke – “invested” in a stockpile of firepower that made it a significant threat to the State.

Ellington said police intelligence shows that the gang made significant investments in an arsenal of weapons that included 50-calibre rifles, shoulder-mounted weapons, as well as explosives after a deadly firefight in 2001 between members of the security forces and thugs loyal to Coke in the west Kingston community of Tivoli Gardens.

“This represented a shift away from stand-off single-target weapons to group-target weapons, which was new and significant in terms of how criminals were arming themselves in Jamaica,” said Ellington, who was giving evidence before the West Kingston Commission of Enquiry.

He said that the level of investment, coupled with the high level of organisation displayed by the ‘Presidential Click’, made it a “non-traditional, insurgency level” threat to the authority of the State way beyond the capabilities of any other criminal gang operating across the island.

“None [of them] were on the scale of the Tivoli Gardens gang. The Clans [Clansman] and One Order gangs would be the two in the wings that would pose a significant threat, but they were not as organised as the Tivoli Gardens gang,” Ellington told the three-member panel.

“They didn’t make the kind of social investment in communities as the Tivoli Gardens gang did – buying loyalties and actually appearing to operate like a state within a state,” he underscored.

Jamaica Observer

Former Commissioner Testifies That Illegal Guns Arrived In Jamaica Ahead Of Tivoli Operation To Apprehend Dudus Coke

ShowerPoseguns — Jamaica’s former Commissioner of Police says a stockpile of illegal guns and other weapons landed in Kingston days prior to the Tivoli raids.

Former commissioner of police Owen Ellington testified that the police got intelligence that an aeroplane with illegal weapons landed at the airstrip in Vernamfield, Clarendon, days before the May 24, 2010 operation to apprehend Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke.

He testified that the cargo of guns landed on May 20. Ellington, who was being questioned by Peter Champagnie, said the guns did not belong to the police.

The former top cop said he was not immediately made aware of the report of the illegal shipment. He testified also that it had been reported by the police, who were by the Kingston Harbour, that 15 row boats with heavily armed men were heading toward Portmore in St Catherine.

The former commissioner also testified that gangs affiliated with Coke had planned to create disturbances across the island to stretch the resources of the police.

Edited by Paul Henry

Former Commissioner Of Police Says Strongman Dudus Coke Resisted Efforts For Peaceful Surrender During Manhunt

Former Tivoli Gardens don Christopher ‘Dudus Coke is said to have sent a message to Prime Minister Bruce Golding in May 2010 demanding that he “find a way to deal with this” or “come good” if he intended to apprehend him for extradition to the United States.

Former Commissioner of Police Owen Ellington testified yesterday, during the continuation of the Tivoli enquiry at the Jamaica Conference Centre, that the message came through the Reverend Al Miller, whom he had asked to speak to Coke about turning himself in to the police.

Ellington testified that he had asked Miller and then Political Ombudsman Bishop Herro Blair to speak with Coke with the view of securing his peaceful surrender.

He said he spoke with the two clergymen between May 18 and 24, 2010 on the request of a then Government minister, whom he did not identify during his testimony — a stance with which Commission Chairman Sir David Simmons took issue.

“[Rev Miller] returned two days later and said to me, ‘I saw the man and the man say to me that if it was the PNP in power they would know how to deal with it. Tell Bruce Golding to find a way to deal with it. I’m not going anywhere, and if him a come fi mi him haffi come good’,” Ellington said Miller reported back to him.

He said Miller contacted him after the start of the May 24 operation to apprehend Coke to say that he had secured the surrender of a brother and sister of Coke, and that he was still trying to secure the surrender of the then Tivoli Gardens don.

He said he had asked Blair first to talk with Coke about a peaceful surrender. He said Blair, who also went to see Coke in Tivoli Gardens, reported back that Coke said he will not be surrendering. Blair, Ellington testified, said he has had dealings with the military, and that he’d never seen so many rifles in his life as he saw in Tivoli Gardens.

“[He said] he would be praying for me and my officers,” Ellington testified during his evidence-in-chief from Deborah Martin, one of the attorneys for the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).

Prior to Ellington taking the stand at the enquiry looking into the operation to apprehend Coke, Golding who was called back to be questioned by Martin and Queen’s Counsel Jacqueline Samuels-Brown (Miller’s lawyer), said he was “guardedly optimistic” about Miller getting Coke to surrender. He testified that he knew that Miller had contact with the United States Embassy and the police high command about getting Coke to surrender.

Seventy-four civilians were killed in the operation to apprehend Coke and restore law and order to the West Kingston community and its environs.

Questioned on the issue by Garth McBean, QC, the attorney for the commission, Ellington said he had no report as to what number of those who were killed had been shooting at the police.

He had testified earlier that damage to JCF assets as a result of the operation had been calculated at $126 million. And that the list of finds associated with the operation (apart from guns, ammunition and explosives) included police radios, denim similar to that worn by police, gun holster, seven licence plates — including a diplomatic licence plate — and eight ballistic vests.

Jamaica Observer