DEADLY SHOWER POSSE GANG HAS DEEP TIES TO TORONTO

Alleged leader of Jamaica-based drug gang unleashes violence in
Kingston just one month after a dozen members arrested here

The Shower Posse, a notorious Jamaican gang whose alleged leader is
at the centre of Kingston's recent rash of violence, has had ties to
Toronto for the past 20 years.

Christopher "Dudus" Coke, said to be the current leader of the gang,
which trades in guns and drugs worldwide, is resisting extradition to
the U.S. The fatal gun violence in Jamaica's capital city is
reportedly the result of Coke's protectors defending his hiding place.

On Monday soldiers and police stormed a Kingston slum, trading
gunfire with Coke's supporters. At least four people have been
killed, including two policemen, one soldier and a civilian, and
several others were wounded in two days of violence.

The government declared a state of emergency on Sunday in volatile
sections of the capital as Prime Minister Bruce Golding vowed "strong
and decisive action" to restore order.

The limited emergency in Jamaica, a popular Caribbean tourism
destination, covered districts where gunmen shot up or set fire to
five police stations and carried out carjackings and looting on Sunday.

There were unconfirmed reports of additional civilian deaths and
reports that military helicopters dropped explosives on the Tivoli
Gardens neighbourhood of West Kingston where Coke is believed to be hiding out.

Earlier this month, Toronto police conducted Project Corral, a
massive gang sweep in the city's northwest. Over 70 people were
arrested, a dozen of them said to be Shower Posse members.

At that time, police identified two alleged Shower Posse leaders
living in Toronto: Courtney Ottey, previously charged with
participating in a criminal organization, and Derrick Smith, said to
be a key firearms and drug supplier.

Shower Posse members don't necessarily look or behave like the less
powerful gangs they do business with, Staff Insp. Mike Earl said at
the time. "They're very sophisticated. They're very smart," he said.
"It's not like they're going to be wearing colours or you're going to
run into them on a day-to-day basis. They don't wear do-rags."

The 1980s and '90s saw the Shower Posse and other Jamaican-based
gangs waging a violent turf war in several countries. Over 1,000 U.S.
deaths were linked to the gangs.

In Toronto, the Jamaican posses were linked to at least 16 murders in
1991 alone. Local posses brought in hit men from New York, toting
9-mm weapons to defend control of the local crack cocaine trade.

Some Toronto residents hired private security firms to protect their
families from stray bullets.

Christopher Coke is the son of one of the Shower Posse's original
founders, the infamous Lester "Jim Brown" Coke, who died in a
Jamaican prison in 1992, while awaiting extradition to the U.S.
himself. The other founder, Vivian Blake, died in Jamaica in March of
this year, having been deported after eight years in a U.S. jail.
American law officials have been trying to extradite the younger Coke
for over a year.

The recent events in Jamaica, as well as the arrests in Toronto, mark
a resurgence in notoriety for the Shower Posse, whose trail had gone
quiet here in the past decade or so. After the Project Corral
arrests, police said they weren't sure if the gang went away and came
back or just dug down deeper.

Local Jamaican leaders say they are concerned about the unrest in
their home country.

"We're monitoring it very closely," said Leo Campbell, the vice
president of the Jamaican Canadian Association.

Campbell said he has heard about the Shower Posse over the years, but
it's not something that gets discussed very often.

"There are a lot of law abiding Jamaican citizens who reside here,
making contributions and doing well. We're trying to be progressive,
but unfortunately these isolated incidents dominate the headlines," he said.

With files from Katie Daubs