Tag / Tivoli Enquiry

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Tivoli Enquiry: Bishop Testifies Dudus Coke Was Unarmed When They Met

 

Bishop Herro Blair has testified that drug kingpin Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke was unarmed when they met at his Tivoli Gardens office in May 2010.

When asked how he knew that, the popular elicited laughter at the west Kingston commission of enquiry when he replied: “because of the way I greeted him”.

“You patted (searched) him?” asked chairman of the commission Sir David Simmons.

Blair replied laughing, while demonstrating to the commission how he ran both hands down the drug kingpin’s back.

l said to him ‘can I give you a hug?’

Blair testified that on his way to meet with Coke that day he passed more than 50 men openly carrying handguns.

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Jamaican Druglord ‘Dudus’ Coke Refuses To Attend Tivoli Enquiry 

  

Via Jamaica Observer– Efforts by Public Defender Arlene Harrison Henry to have former Tivoli Gardens don Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke testify in the Tivoli Enquiry have hit a brick wall.

Queen’s Counsel Lord Gifford told the enquiry on Monday that the public defender made an attempt, through Coke’s attorney in the United States, to have him return to the island and give evidence but Coke said that he wasn’t interested in participating. 

Former Public Defender Earl Witter had recommended in his interim report that the enquiry hear from Coke.

Coke in serving a 20-year sentence in the US after being extradited in June 2010 to face drugs and gunrunning charges. 

He pleaded guilty to reduced charges.

The enquiry is looking into the deaths of 73 people resulting from the police-military operation to apprehend Coke in May 2010.

by brandycavalli

3 Bodies Recovered Following Dudus Coke Manhunt Belonged To Women

  
A number of the 73 bodies recovered in West Kingston resulting from the operation to apprehend Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke were those of men convicted of one crime or another. Superintendent Gladys ‎Brown Ellis testified in the Tivoli Enquiry that these bodies were identified by criminal records.

‎The superintendent testified that the body of a man believed to be a sniper was ‎recovered from a roof
Evidence had been given in the enquiry that up to 300 gunmen were in Tivoli Gardens in May 2010 to defend Coke who was wanted in the US at the time on drugs and gunrunning charges.

Brown Ellis testified also that three of the bodies recovered belonged to women she identified as Gloria Smith, Petrina Edwards and Carlene McKenzie.

“I came to know these women like sisters; I was with them so long,” said Brown Ellis, referring to the forensic processing and identification process.

Source | Jamaica Observer 

by brandycavalli

DrugLord ‘Dudus’ Coke Refused To Give Any Information To Police Following Bloody Manhunt Arrest

Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke looks on as JDF officers onspect the cell where he was held at Up Park Detention Center following his 2015 manhunt arrest

Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke wasn’t much help to detectives who wanted to know how he escaped Tivoli Gardens during the May 2010 operation to apprehend him.

Superintendent Michael Phipps, who was being questioned by attorney Peter Champagnie for the Jamaica Defence Force, said that he interviewed Coke on June 23, 2010 at the Up Park Camp following his arrest that same month.

SEE THE VIDEO: Dudus Coke in Custody at Up Park Following Manhunt

Phipps said that he asked Coke how he managed to leave Tivoli Gardens and if he left the community to avoid arrest.

“Same answer. Same ‎answer,” Phipps said Coke responded, meaning that he would not answer the questions on the advice of his attorneys Tom Tavares-Finson and George Soutar, QC.

Coke had also refused to say whether he was dressed in array fatigue on May 24 or 25.

Phipps testified earlier that Coke answered the most basic questions, such as his name and address, among other things, out of a total of 182.

Source | Jamaica Observer

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Diary Of Dudus Coke Gang Leader Read In Court: “This Is A Wasted Life”

  
The Tivoli Commission of Enquiry yesterday heard compelling testimony of how a notorious gangster who, amid his confessed acts of criminality, appeared remorseful about his criminal lifestyle and who was missing the affection of his family.

The testimony by Superintendent Beau Rigabie was based on the contents of a diary he said was penned by slain Stone Crusher gang leader ‘Doggie’ – given name Cedric Murray – who was killed in a shoot-out with the police in Clarendon on August 12, 2010.

Reverence For Coke

Several entries in the diary show the reverence Murray had for drug kingpin Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke and the Coke clan and how he boasted about being among heavily armed thugs who waged fierce gun battles with members of the security forces during the May 2010 police-military operation in Tivoli Gardens.

In one entry dated May 24, 2010 – the day the operation was launched – Murray described how “gunshot rang out from every corner of west Kingston” and suggested that Coke and his cronies might have underestimated the firepower of the security forces.

All hell broke loose, more than we expected. I fired my AK [47 rifle] until my finger numb. I eat gun powder until my throat sore,” Rigabie said as he read one of the gangster’s boasts.

“It was a raging gun battle, a day I won’t forget and such tragedy for Jamaica. They came in and slaughter all those people to catch one man and still didn’t,” he continued.

“I escaped … one of the last from where I was … under crazy gunfire, but God, grace [and] mercy brought me out untouched and my don is free. I will always say ‘Jim Brown’ [Coke’s late father Lester Lloyd Coke] … I am loyal to the Coke family and my guns will always be ready,” Murray also wrote.

Despite this, the reputed gang leader showed his softer side in an entry he made in June 2010. Murray wrote that his heart was in pain because he was about to “lose his baby”, a reference to his female companion.

“This is just too much, she lives in constant fear. Every sound frightens her so the time has come for me to, once again, to feel the pain of being heartbroken,” he wrote.

Murray also wrote of his daughter’s fourth birthday when she reported waking up to a curfew. “I called her and she said ‘daddy soldiers’ and she was afraid. My life is filled with ups and downs,” he noted.

He also indicated that the dismantling of Coke’s west Kingston stronghold forced him “back in the streets” and that he was “very unhappy and lonely”.

Murray recounted one instance when a false alarm caused him to flee his place of hiding.

“So many of those, this is a wasted life. I don’t even have a roof over my head, I’m all over [the place]. I miss my kids,” he wrote.

Source | Jamaica Gleaner