(MANHATTAN, NY) Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for
the Southern District of New York and Wilbert L. Plummer, Acting Special Agent
in Charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s New York Field Division
(DEA) announced that CHRISTOPHER MICHAEL COKE, the leader of the Jamaica-based
international criminal organization, the “Shower Posse,” also known as the
“Presidential Click,” was sentenced today to 23 years in prison. COKE pled
guilty on August 31, 2011 to one count of racketeering conspiracy and one count
of conspiracy to commit assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of racketeering.
He was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Robert P. Patterson.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara
stated: “From his home base in Jamaica, Christopher Coke presided over an
international drug and weapons trafficking organization that he controlled
through violence and intimidation for nearly two decades; enlisting an army of
‘soldiers’ to do his bidding. With his conviction, he is no longer able to
traffick drugs in the U.S., move guns across our border, or terrorize people,
and with today’s sentence; he will now spend a very long time in prison for his
crimes.”
DEA Acting Special Agent in Charge
Wilbert Plummer stated, “This sentencing shows the tenacity that law
enforcement has upheld in order to identify, arrest and prosecute Christopher
Coke and those like him who have been ‘untouchable’ criminals. For years, Coke has overseen cocaine and
marijuana distribution as well as illegally traffic in firearms throughout the
United States. Through concerted law enforcement efforts he has finally seen
the consequences of his actions and has been sentenced to 23 years behind
bars.”
According to the Superseding Information
and statements made during court proceedings:
Since the early 1990s, COKE led the
Presidential Click, which had members in Jamaica, the United States, and other
countries. He was based in the Tivoli Gardens area, a neighborhood in
inner-city Kingston, Jamaica, that he controlled. Tivoli Gardens was guarded by
a group of gunmen who acted at COKE’s direction. They were armed with illegally
trafficked firearms from the United States that COKE imported into Jamaica.
Since 1994, members of the Presidential
Click have been involved in drug trafficking in locations throughout the world,
including New York City, Miami, and Kingston, Jamaica. At COKE’s direction and
on his behalf, members distributed marijuana, cocaine, and crack cocaine and
sent him the proceeds. They also supplied COKE with firearms that they obtained
in theUnited States. The Presidential Click
members relied on COKE to provide them with protection and to assist them in
their drug businesses, including with respect to the resolution of narcotics
related disputes. For example, in May 2007, COKE and others agreed to assault a
narcotics trafficker in the Bronx, New York, when the trafficker failed to pay
a drug debt owed to another member of the Presidential Click. COKE has been
designated by the U.S. Department of Justice as a Consolidated Priority
Organization Target (“CPOT”). The CPOT list includes the world’s most dangerous
narcotics traffickers. COKE was arrested by Jamaican authorities on June 22,
2010, near Kingston, Jamaica, and arrived in the Southern District of New York
on June 24, 2010.
In addition to his prison term, COKE,
43, was sentenced to four years of supervised release and ordered to pay $1.5
million in forfeiture.
Mr. Bharara praised the investigative
work of the DEA’s New York Field Division and Caribbean Division’s Kingston
Office. Mr. Bharara also thanked the Office of International Affairs in the
Justice Department’s Criminal Division for their significant assistance in this
case, as well as the U.S. Embassy in Kingston and the Office of the Legal
Adviser at the Department of State.
The case is being handled by the
Office’s Terrorism and International Narcotics Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys
Jocelyn Strauber and John Zach are in charge of the prosecution.
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