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

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

drug lord A drug lord, drug baron, kingpin, or lord of drugs is a type of crime boss in charge of a drug trafficking network, organization, or enterprise. Crime barons may be difficult to bring to justice: usually, they do not possess illegal goods. Ra ...

and the founder of the

Shower Posse The Shower Posse is a Jamaican posse, Jamaican gang, started by Lester Lloyd Coke, which is involved in drug smuggling, drug and arms smuggling. Its home is in Tivoli Gardens, Kingston, Tivoli Gardens in Jamaica. It has several North American b ...

, 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 Kla ...

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) was a Jamaican singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Considered one of the pioneers of reggae, he fused elements of reggae, ska and rocksteady and was renowned for his distinctive voca ...

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 lord, 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, Jamaica, Kingst ...

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 is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

and

cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae that is widely accepted as being indigenous to and originating from the continent of Asia. However, the number of species is disputed, with as many as three species be ...

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 United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of Law of the Unite ...

, and Coke was arrested by ATF, US Marshals and Jamaican authorities. He was put in the General Penitentiary in Kingston to await extradition to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

drug trafficking A drug is any chemical substance other than a nutrient or an essential dietary ingredient, which, when administered to a living organism, produces a biological effect. Consumption of drugs can be via inhalation, injection, smoking, ingestion, ...

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 (; ; , pronounced ʰʲɪʎˈrˠiː.ɪɲ 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 fourth-largest settleme ...

. 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 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