Dudus' fight for freedom begins
Published:Tuesday | July 12, 2011 | 12:00 AM
- Coke to appear in New York court today to challenge wiretap information against him
Arthur Hall, Senior Staff Reporter
After just over one year in an American prison, alleged Jamaican drug kingpin Christopher 'Dudus' Coke begins his fight for freedom in earnest today when he appears in a New York court to attempt to convince a judge to throw out the wiretap evidence against him.
United States prosecutors are expected to rely heavily on the wiretap information which, they say, records Coke - "one of the world's most dangerous narcotics kingpins" - planning drug and gun deals.
If the wiretap information is not allowed into evidence, the prosecutors will have a hard time proving their case against Coke, who they accuse of conspiracy to traffic in ganja and cocaine and conspiracy to traffic in illegal firearms.
According to the prosecutors, Coke led an international criminal organisation known as the Shower Posse, and under his direction and protection, members of his gang sold ganja and crack cocaine in the New York area and elsewhere, with the proceeds being sent to Jamaica.
Punishment
If convicted on the narcotics charge, Coke faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, and a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison, as well as a fine of up to US$4 million, or twice what he made from the illegal trade.
He also faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison on the firearms-trafficking charge, and a fine of US$250,000, or twice what he gained from the trade.
In obtaining a Grand Jury indictment against Coke in August 2009, the prosecutors focused on taped telephone conversations he reportedly had with co-conspirators based in the US.
But lawyers representing Coke have asked US district judge, Robert P. Patterson Jr, to rule that the wiretap information should not be admitted during the trial, which begins in September.
Acquired through illegal means
Coke's lead attorney, Stephen H. Rosen, has argued that the wiretaps were acquired in breach of US law as they were obtained by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) through two illegal memoranda of understanding (MOUs) signed with the Jamaican Government.
Rosen has argued that the MOUs were signed by a DEA official who did not have the authority to do so.
The prosecutors have countered that this was not an argument raised by Coke in Jamaica before he was extradited and should be ignored by the US court.
But in documents filed last Friday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, Rosen noted that Coke was never charged with a crime in Jamaica and had no ability to litigate the lawfulness of the wiretaps conducted by Jamaican law-enforcement authorities.
"Indeed, the illegality of the wiretaps would explain why defendant Coke was never charged with a crime in Jamaica," added Rosen.