Troops storm barricades in hunt for drugs baron

At least 27 people are reported to have died after Jamaican troops and police stormed the barricades erected by gunmen loyal to the notorious underworld boss, Christopher 'Dudus' Coke. They were searching house to house in West Kingston for Coke, who is wanted for extradition to the United States on gun and drug trafficking charges.

After declaring a state of emergency on Sunday, troops struggled to remove roadblocks, especially in the West Kingston communities of Tivoli Gardens and Denham Town, where Coke is understood to be hiding. But today the Minister of National Security, Dwight Nelson, said security forces had "nearly" retaken the barricaded areas and were hunting for the drugs baron.

Coke, 42, is the leader of a cartel known as the Shower Posse - because they shower their enemies with bullets - and is described by the US Justice as one of the "world's most dangerous narcotics kingpins".

The warrant for his extradition relates to charges unveiled last August, accusing him of running a guns and drugs trade from Jamaica that ends up with marijuana and crack cocaine being sold on the streets of New York and other north American cities.

'Dudus' is a divisive figure in Kingston. Despite his notoriety as a drugs baron, his reputation is part Robin Hood and part Mafia godfather. He enjoys respect not just for ensuring peace in the neighbourhoods he controls, but for creating jobs. In West Kingston, many call him "president".

Typically, the Jamaican senator Tom Tavares Finson, who until recently served as Coke's lawyer, paints a picture of an upright local businessman. "Essentially he has overseen the transformation of a community riddled with criminality and violence into a place where people can make money," Finson told the Jamaica Observer, before standing down as Coke's representative because of a "conflict of interests".

Such is Coke's influence that there is a fear that his extradition will destabilise the area. Hence the local support - and hence, too, the initial reluctance of the government to hand him over to the United States. Prime Minister Bruce Golding argued that evidence against Coke gained by wire-tapping was inadmissible. He only gave in after considerable pressure was brought to bear by Washington.

After imposing the state of emergency on Sunday, Golding said in a national TV broadcast that the locals resisting his arrest were making "a calculated assault on the authority of the state that cannot be tolerated and will not be allowed to continue".

However, his words have a hollow ring on the mean streets of West Kingston, which is, coincidentally, the constituency Golding represents in the Jamaican parliament and where Golding's Labour Party is widely believed to have done deals to secure votes.

Christopher Coke took control of the Shower Posse in 1992 following the death of his father, Lester Lloyd Coke, nicknamed 'Jim Brown' after the 1960s American football star. He had co-founded the cartel with Vivian Blake, nicknamed 'Jamaican Dave'.

They first came to prominence in South Florida in the 1980s, trafficking Jamaican marijuana, and soon rivalled the Colombian cocaine cartels for their violence and morals.

A former law enforcement agent, Joe Vince, told the Miami New Times: "They operated without any kind of ethics or morals. When they suspected that one of their members was cooperating with the authorities, they killed that individual, cut him up with a chainsaw, put him in a 50-gallon drum, and sent it to his mother in Jamaica. They relied on intimidation." ·