Lester Lloyd Coke, commonly known as Jim Brown, was a

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

drug lord A drug lord, drug baron, kingpin or narcotrafficker is a high-ranking crime boss who controls a sizable network of people involved in the illegal drug trade. Such figures are often difficult to bring to justice, as they are normally not directly ...

and the founder of the

Shower Posse The Shower Posse is a Jamaican gang, started by Lester Lloyd Coke, which is involved with drug and arms smuggling. Its home is in Tivoli Gardens in Jamaica, but it primarily operates in the Canadian province of Ontario and the US states of New ...

, a gang based out of the

Tivoli Gardens Tivoli Gardens, also known simply as Tivoli, is an amusement park and pleasure garden in Copenhagen, Denmark. The park opened on 15 August 1843 and is the third-oldest operating amusement park in the world, after Dyrehavsbakken in nearby Klam ...

garrison community in West Kingston. Coke was identified by the Netflix documentary ''ReMastered: Who Shot the Sheriff'' as present and a party to the shooting of

Bob Marley Robert Nesta Marley (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981; baptised in 1980 as Berhane Selassie) was a Jamaican singer, musician, and songwriter. Considered one of the pioneers of reggae, his musical career was marked by fusing elements o ...

on 3 December 1976.

Shower Posse

Lester Lloyd Coke founded the Shower Posse alongside

Vivian Blake Vivian Blake (11 May 1956 – 21 March 2010) was a Jamaican drug kingpin who founded and operated the American operations of the Jamaican Shower Posse. Background Blake was born to a poor family in West Kingston, but was granted a scholars ...

after the Tivoli Gardens strongman, Claudius Masop died in the late 1970's. Claudius had been Coke's mentor and his death left Coke as the leader of the Phoenix gang which later became the Shower Posse. The Shower Posse dealt

cocaine Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly recreational drug use, used recreationally for its euphoria, euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from t ...

and

Cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae. The number of species within the genus is disputed. Three species may be recognized: ''Cannabis sativa'', '' C. indica'', and '' C. ruderalis''. Alternatively ...

across Jamaica and the United States.They are also Tied to a large number of murders in both countries.

Arrest and death

In 1990 Lester Lloyd Coke and other gang members were indicted by the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...

, and Coke was arrested by Jamaican authorities. He was put in the General Penitentiary in Kingston to await extradition to the United States on drug trafficking and murder charges. In February 1992 shortly after the violent death of his eldest son Mark "Jah T" Coke, a fire broke out in Coke’s cell and he was burned to death. The source of the fire was not identified which led to speculation that he was murdered.

Family

In 1992 Coke's eldest son Mark Coke was shot and killed while riding his motorcycle down Maxfield Avenue in

St Andrews St Andrews ( la, S. Andrea(s); sco, Saunt Aundraes; gd, Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fou ...

. Coke's daughter who went by the name Mumpi was killed in a shootout where her husband was also shot and killed. Upon his death, Coke's adopted son

Christopher Coke Christopher Michael Coke, also known as Dudus (born 13 March 1969), is a convicted Jamaican drug lord and the leader of the Shower Posse, a violent drug gang started by his father Lester Coke in Jamaica, which exported "large quantities" of mar ...

was elected as the new head of the Shower Posse.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coke, Lester 1992 deaths Jamaican crime bosses Shower Posse Place of birth missing Date of birth missing Year of birth missing