Shower Posse

The Shower Posse is a Jamaican gang, started by Lester Lloyd Coke, which is involved in drug and arms smuggling. Its home is in Tivoli Gardens in Jamaica. It has several North American branches. The North American branches were first founded by Vivian Blake in the Canadian city of Toronto, Ontario. The gang operates in expatriate Jamaican communities in the US states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the city of Miami, Florida.

Name

There are differing reports on the origin of the name. One theory is that it comes from the promises of its associated politicians to shower supporters with gifts. Another view is that it is a reference to the gang showering opponents with bullets."No remedy for 'Posse'; International drug cartel calling the shots in Toronto's northwest end." Drew Halfnight. ''National Post''. 8 May 2010. p. A14. A third theory is that the gang got its name from the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) election slogan 'Shower', which was a response to the PNP's 'Power' that was coined from Manley's 'Power for the people' slogan in the 1970s.

History

The Shower Posse originated in the Tivoli Gardens neighbourhood of Kingston circa 1981. One of the gang's founders, Lester Lloyd "Jim Brown" Coke, became the chief political enforcer for the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) in West Kingston after the death of Claude Massop, who was killed in a shootout with police in February 1979. With the assistance of the United States, Edward Seaga's JLP ousted the People's National Party (PNP) led by Michael Manley, who was alleged to be aligned with Fidel Castro of Cuba, in the 1980 Jamaican general election.

In exchange for the United States' support, the JLP embarked on a campaign of ''ganja'' eradication. As ''ganja'' was a major cash crop for some Jamaicans, the destruction of acres of the seedlings, sometimes with chemicals which also destroyed legal crops, paved the way for Jamaica to become a major trans-shipment point for cocaine from South America to the United States. The Shower Posse exploited the cocaine trade to amass wealth and influence. The JLP-aligned Shower Posse has been provided with arms, training, and transport to the United States by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The gang's primary activities involve the distribution of crack cocaine and marijuana, and the theft or illegal purchase and exportation of firearms, using violence to expand into new territories.

Coke led the Shower Posse from Kingston while Vivian Blake, who was the other of the two leading figures in the gang, became the gang's most senior member in the United States.Shower Posse – 1989 Report
State of New Jersey Commission of Investigation (1989) According to Metro-Dade Police Department Sergeant Kevin Dougherty, who investigated Coke: "It seemed like Miami was their secondary base of operations".Jamaica bloodshed has its roots in Miami's drug-running past
Jennifer Lebovich and Trenton Daniel, ''Miami Herald'' (31 March 2010) Blake established the Shower Posse's U.S. operations, with cells in Miami, New York City, Kansas City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and other cities, primarily on the East Coast. The Shower Posse became the first Jamaican gang to branch out of New York City into South Jersey. In New Jersey, the gang formed drug networks in Newark, East Orange, Irvington, Camden, Atlantic City, Vineland, Trenton and Bridgeton.

In 1985, Donovan Clarke founded a Shower Posse cell in Philadelphia and the South Jersey counties of Atlantic, Burlington and Camden. The Dog Posse challenged the Shower Posse for control of operations in New Jersey and Philadelphia. On 4 August 1985, a gun battle erupted at a picnic attended by approximately 2,000 Jamaicans in Oakland, New Jersey, during which elements of the Shower Posse and Spangler Posse from Brooklyn and the Bronx fought with the Boston-based Dog Posse and Tel Aviv Posse. Three people were killed, nine were wounded, and police retrieved thirty-three handguns from the scene.

In September 1988, a federal grand jury in Miami indicted 34 members of the Shower Posse, including Blake and Coke. Blake's two half-brothers, Errol Hussing and Tony Bruce, who headed the New York City operations of the Shower Posse, were also indicted.

The Shower Posse was involved in a drug war with the Junior Black Mafia in Southwest Philadelphia during the 1980s and early 1990s.

In 1989, former member Charles "Little Nut" Miller was charged with drug trafficking but agreed to testify against other gang leaders in order to receive immunity. In his testimony – in which he implicated himself in nine murders – Miller revealed his connection to the JLP as a "political enforcer", as well as to the CIA, going as far to state that "the United States made me what I am."

In 2009 the United States began to demand that Christopher Coke, then leader of the Shower Posse, with extensive and well-known links to the JLP, be extradited to New York, where he would face charges of smuggling drugs and weapons. Then prime minister of Jamaica, Bruce Golding, who was also the Member of Parliament for that district (West Kingston), initially questioned the legality of the request, claiming that warrantless wiretapping had been used to collect information on Coke. However, he eventually relented, after public indignation to what many Jamaicans viewed as a cover-up to protect a politically connected drug trafficker, and on 17 May 2010 an arrest warrant was issued for Coke, leading to a state of civil unrest within Kingston, and especially Tivoli Gardens.
Coke was eventually arrested outside of Kingston on 22 June 2010. On Friday, 15 June 2012, a New York federal district court sentenced Coke to two consecutive sentences: 20 years for racketeering and conspiracy, and an additional three years for conspiracy to commit assault.

In January 2021, the former lieutenant of the Shower Posse, Harry "Harry Dog" McLeod, was shot and killed in an attack in Kingston.

In popular culture

The 2014 novel ''A Brief History of Seven Killings'' by Marlon James features a gang called Storm Posse, who share many features with Shower Posse, based in a fictionalised version of Tivoli Gardens named "Copenhagen City".

Christopher Coke and the Shower Posse were the subject of an episode of the Netflix documentary series, '' Drug Lords'', released in 2018. 34 members of the Jamaican Shower Posse were indicted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in 1988 for RICO which included 62 count indictment. Al listed in the indictment including Jim Brown aka Lester Coke and Vivian Blake were arrested and convicted. Jim Brown however died in Jamaican Police custody right after he was ordered to be extradited to the US.

References

{{Canadian gangs

1981 establishments in Jamaica
Drugs in Jamaica
Gangs in Florida
Gangs in New Jersey
Gangs in New York City
Gangs in Philadelphia
Gangs in Toronto
Kingston, Jamaica
Organizations established in 1981
Organized crime groups in Canada
Organized crime groups in Jamaica
Organized crime groups in the United States
Organised crime groups in the United Kingdom
Politics of Jamaica
Transnational organized crime