the year is 2010 an american military
spy plane circles in the air as soldiers
fire mortar shells into densely
populated civilian areas while taking
fire from heavily armed militias
over three days over 70 civilians are
killed but this is not a war zone in
afghanistan or somalia this is a drugs
bust in kingston jamaica police in
jamaica are calling for nationwide
tranquility urging people to remain calm
following the arrest of a reputed drug
baron and gang leader a few miles away
tourists are sipping rum and smoking
weed in resort hotels and to be fair
this is no ordinary drugs bust this is
the massive military operation it took
to bring down dados coke also known as
the president his real name is
christopher michael koch now the man
considered to be one of the world's most
dangerous drug kingpins has been
captured and brought to justice this is
how a narco warlord makes drugs violence
and political connections to wield power
throughout jamaican society this is the
story of dadas coke aka the secret
president of jamaica
dudas coke's rise to power is rooted in
the brutal gang violence that has
scarred jamaica for half a century and
how this violence has been manipulated
and encouraged by the country's
political elite when jamaica gained
independence from britain in 1962 the
country quickly came to be dominated by
two political parties the left-leaning
pnp and the more pro-american jamaican
labour party in particular two leaders
michael manley of the pmp and edward
sieger of labour divided power between
them swapping stints as prime minister
for decades
on the michael manley campaign trail
it's a day of spot meetings deep in the
agricultural heartland of rural jamaica
he kept his message with a cry forward
with socialism
but later denies that he aims to
establish a second communist cuba in the
caribbean these two men emerged as the
first political leaders in independent
jamaica
they had a kind of messianic aura about
them people looked to them for new
powers for the independent jamaican
society and this political rivalry
played out on the streets each party
made alliances with gangster bosses
known as dons who ran certain
neighborhoods the semi-official deal was
that the don would deliver the votes of
the people in their area and in return
they could run organized crime
syndicates with protection from the
police the jamaican don really evolved
first as
a political enforcer if you happen to be
residing in a pnp community or a jlp
community then the enforcer's job is to
enforce that that political loyalty
sticks whether you like it or not
these alliances between politicians and
gangsters would erupt into open gang
warfare particularly in the run-up to
elections as each party tried to
intimidate the other supporters one of
the most important aspects of the
election has been the violence that's
marked the campaign
and whilst politicians have argued
gunmen have been shooting it out in the
streets as the murder rate spiraled out
of control rumors circulated that
weapons were being supplied by the cia
and cuban paramilitaries neighborhoods
became known as garrisons literal
fortresses which police couldn't enter
with gang bosses wielding almost
complete control
and just as the violence was getting so
bad that not even bob marley could fix
it something happened to make it even
worse
the war on drugs
this is crack cocaine seized a few days
ago by drug enforcement agents in a park
just across the street from the white
house let there be no mistake
this stuff is poison in the 1980s
cocaine and crack cocaine exploded in
popularity across america jamaica sits
exactly halfway between colombia and
southern florida and became a key
trafficking hub this fundamentally
changed the balance of power between the
politicians and the dons instead of the
gangsters waiting for handouts and
building contracts from the government
they now found themselves at the center
of a multi-billion dollar trade
by 1980 there is this influx of cocaine
coming through the caribbean corridor
into the united states and these
political enforcers they are now making
a lot of cash from trafficking marijuana
and trafficking cocaine the most
important garrison community in jamaica
at the time was the west kingston ghetto
of tivoli gardens as the cocaine trade
began to boom tivoli was controlled by a
gang known as the shower posse strongly
allied to the jamaican labour party the
shower party got its name because of its
brutality it was the on the tec-9 those
were guns at the shop what she really
loved they would take out their
opponents by storing bullets jamaican
gangs like the shower posse and their
rivals the spangler posse spread out
across the u.s and the uk unlike the
colombian and mexican trafficking groups
who concentrated on the wholesale side
of the cocaine business the jamaican
gangs also began taking control of
street corner dealing in american cities
and this brought them into bloody
conflict with local american dealers the
jamaican gangs were used to fighting
full-scale street battles with automatic
weapons and brought a whole new level of
violence to the american gang wars the
us was already experiencing a spike in
homicides throughout the 1980s but the
arrival of the shower posse and other
jamaican groups is thought to have
accelerated this with estimates of them
being responsible for over 1
400 homicides by the late 80s this was
when dudas took control of the shower
posse and massively expanded its drug
trafficking operations it's also when
people started calling him the president
dadas dramatically reorganized the
shower potty's operations in the u.s
adopting a franchise model where
individual cells were free to run
themselves across america as long as
they sent money and guns back to jamaica
but
back in tivoli gardens his authority was
absolute he is the supreme kind of
leader of tivoli garden this almost
state within the jamaican state the
entrances to the garrison were blocked
by barricades so police couldn't enter
the shower posse were the law and this
is where the story gets complex because
for a murderous gangster dadas can also
claim to have helped his community dadas
run significant charity and welfare
programs in tivoli including
after-school clubs help for the elderly
and food handouts and through legitimate
companies he put on major music
festivals featuring jamaica's biggest
stars as well as receiving over a
million dollars in government contracts
through which he employed local people
he provided access to things which the
jamaican state has either been unwilling
or incapable of providing so there was a
health care facility in that community
there's a sports complex a very good one
by the way in that community he was
loved in the community he was respected
but he was also feared many people in
tivoli appear to have genuine loyalty
and even love for dallas
the grapes we have blood them are bigger
terrorists than daughters leaving alone
we now keep up with others we love him
bad and we have got dead film
his name checked in songs by everyone
from reggae legends like bunny whaler to
uk grime mcs like skepta on the other
hand dadas was unquestionably
responsible for murders and extreme
violence in his trial people testified
that his form of justice involved
cutting people who crossed him with
hatchets and chainsaws and eventually
daddus's power brought him to the
attention of the dea secret memorandums
were drawn up whereby jamaican police
would run wiretaps on the president but
the operation would be run through
washington the investigation took over
five years and involved the us giving
jamaican police over three million
dollars but eventually 2009 the us
issued an extradition request the then
prime minister of the day drew scolding
happened to also be member of parliament
in western kingston which is where
tivoli gardens is and coke is from that
area so the prime minister was hesitant
with the united states our own
extradition what you saw happening was a
kind of international relations standoff
these scandals proved too much for the
government and eventually they sent in
the police but dallas commanded loyalty
across tivoli and had an army of gunmen
to back him up
the police literally couldn't enter the
garrison to arrest him so the army moved
in my fellow jamaicans good evening this
afternoon the cabinet in emergency
session took the decision to advise the
governor general to issue a proclamation
declaring a state of public emergency
effective 6 pm today
the americans supplied a military drone
and soldiers even fired artillery into
tivoli housing projects a lot of human
rights violations happened in that
process innocent person certainly got
caught up and were killed several
residents gave horrific stories of what
they had to undergo during that
incursion they won't let us out we can't
come out and buy food we're hungry
steal our stitch no one ever charged
dadas for murder racketeering or
political corruption this was a drug
bust organized by the dea on trafficking
charges but it was a drug bust in which
the army was deployed over 70 people
were killed and which caused a political
scandal across jamaican society to
police here he was a drug dealer gun
smuggler and leader of a gang called the
shower posse cope was arraigned friday
in a manhattan federal court he pleaded
not guilty to federal drug and weapons
charges
dadas eventually wound up in court in
new york and was sentenced to 23 years
not only is the don system still
flourishing but despite all the people
killed and all the millions spent
bringing down the president the drugs
are still flowing into the u.s in fact
as america has poured resources into its
southern border the caribbean is now
seeing a new uptick in drug smuggling
particularly from the emerging narco
state of venezuela jamaica itself voted
to decriminalize cannabis in 2015 but as
long as the american war on drugs
continues its gangsters will continue to
get rich rule their garrisons and
corrupt the island's politics
we'd like to congratulate drugs for
winning the war on drugs
[Music]