US DEA stumbled on to Coke case

United States drug-enforcement agents appear to have come across the first details it learned about the alleged criminal empire of accused drug kingpin Christopher 'Dudus' Coke by chance.

Those details, according to a recent New York Times article, came out while investigators were grilling Jamaican drug dealer, Lloyd Reid, after a routine arrest on gun and drug charges in The Bronx, New York, in October 2007.

The article stated that Reid, who was convicted last year on conspiracy to distribute marijuana, told investigators about someone he depicted as "one of the most powerful men in all of Jamaica".

Close relationship

According to the article, court records show that Reid admitted to investigators that he had a close relationship with Coke because his brother had been Coke's right-hand man in Jamaica before he was murdered.

From there, the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) reportedly began building a case against Coke through the use of court-approved wiretaps, court-approved surveillance of his co-conspirators, and information from drug dealers.

The article stated that in one of the taped conversations which was used at Reid's trial, Coke was allegedly heard saying: "Don't you see our thing is a worldwide thing? Nobody will mess with us."

Last August, the US Attorney's Office in Manhattan, New York, unsealed an indictment for Coke on charges of conspiracy to distribute drugs and illegally trafficking in firearms.

The Bruce Golding administration greenlighted Coke's extradition in May, after months of delays.

Some 73 people were killed after the security forces entered Coke's Tivoli Gardens, west Kingston, stronghold on May 24 to apprehend him.

Coke eluded the police for a month before he was caught on June 22 and extradited two days later after he waived his right to a hearing in Jamaica.

The US Attorney's Office in Manhattan has charged that, for more than a decade, Coke controlled an international drug ring from Tivoli Gardens.

Prosecutors say his operatives in New York sent him part of their drug proceeds and bought guns that they shipped to him.