Shower Posse
{{short description|Jamaican gang which is involved with drug and arms smuggling}}
{{about|the criminal organisation in Jamaica|the groups of Jamaican individuals who operate in New York City|Jamaican Posse}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}}
{{Use Jamaican English|date=March 2012}}
{{Infobox criminal organization
| name = Shower Posse
| image =
| image_size =
| caption =
| founded = {{Circa}} {{start date and age|1981}}[https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/132300NCJRS.pdf Afro-Lineal Organized Crime] State of New Jersey Commission of Investigation, p. 19 (March 1991) {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210804015359/https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/132300NCJRS.pdf |date= 4 August 2021 }}
| founders = Vivian Blake and Lester Lloyd Coke[http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/159042_The-Cokes-then-and-now The Cokes then and now] Jamaica Observer (6 September 2009) {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150220043352/http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/159042_The-Cokes-then-and-now#:~:text=with%20his%20confidante-,Vivian%20Blake,-,%20were%20the%20two |date=20 February 2015 }}
| named_after =
| founding_location = Tivoli Gardens, Kingston, Jamaica
| years_active = {{circa|1981{{ndash}}present}}
| territory = Jamaica, Canada, United States and United Kingdom[https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/esponsored/20250225/cokes-influence-jamaican-gangs-uncertain Coke’s influence on Jamaican gangs uncertain] The Gleaner (25 February 2025) {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20250225182943/https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/esponsored/20250225/cokes-influence-jamaican-gangs-uncertain |date=25 February 2025 }}
| ethnicity = Jamaican
| membership_est =
| leaders =
| activities = Drug trafficking, firearms trafficking, kidnapping, robbery, human trafficking, money laundering, murder[https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/132300NCJRS.pdf Afro-Lineal Organized Crime] State of New Jersey Commission of Investigation, p. 18 (March 1991) {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210804015359/https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/132300NCJRS.pdf |date= 4 August 2021 }}
| allies = Jamaica Labour Party
| rivals =
| notable_members =
}}
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.{{cite news|author=James R. Zazzali|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061116071036/http://www.nevadaobserver.com/Reading%20Room%20Documents/Organized%20Crime%20in%20New%20Jersey%20-%20Statement%20of%20James%20R.%20Zazzali%20(1988).htm|publisher=The Nevada Observer|archive-date=2006-11-16|date=1988|url=http://www.nevadaobserver.com/Reading%20Room%20Documents/Organized%20Crime%20in%20New%20Jersey%20-%20Statement%20of%20James%20R.%20Zazzali%20%281988%29.htm|url-status=dead|title=Organized Crime: 25 Years After Valachi}}{{cite web|url=http://www.mafianj.com/afro/afja.shtml|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120904103156/http://www.mafianj.com/afro/afja.shtml|archive-date=2012-09-04|url-status=live|title=The Mafia in New Jersey - AFRICAN-AMERICANS - JAMAICANS - AFRO-LINEAL ORGANIZED CRIME|access-date=23 March 2015|website=www.mafianj.com}}{{cite journal|url=https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/jamaican-drug-gangs-johnny-too-bad-and-sufferers|publisher=United States Department of Justice|date=November 13, 1989|author= L Gunst|journal=Nation|title=Jamaican Drug Gangs: Johnny-Too-Bad and the Sufferers|archive-url=https://archive.today/20230528052427/https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/jamaican-drug-gangs-johnny-too-bad-and-sufferers|archive-date=2023-05-28|url-status=live}}
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."Police raise curtain on the 'Shower Posse'" Colin Freeze. The Globe and Mail. 5 May 2010. p. A11. 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.{{cite web|url=http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/159042_The-Cokes-then-and-now|title=The Cokes then and now - News|work=Jamaica Observer|access-date=23 March 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150220043352/http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/159042_The-Cokes-then-and-now|archive-date=20 February 2015}}
History
{{main|2010 Kingston conflict}}
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).{{cite journal|title=Guns, gangs and garrison communities in the politics of Jamaica |journal=Race & Class |volume=57 |issue=4 |pages=54–74 |last=Edmonds |first=Kevin |publisher=SAGE Journals |doi=10.1177/0306396815624864 |year=2016 |s2cid=146933185 }} 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.[https://www.mafianj.com/afro/showerposse.shtml Shower Posse – 1989 Report] State of New Jersey Commission of Investigation (1989) {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20130901183400/http://www.mafianj.com/afro/showerposse.shtml |date=September 1, 2013 }} According to Metro-Dade Police Department Sergeant Kevin Dougherty, who investigated Coke: "It seemed like Miami was their secondary base of operations".[https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/crime/article24584203.html Jamaica bloodshed has its roots in Miami's drug-running past] Jennifer Lebovich and Trenton Daniel, Miami Herald (31 March 2010) {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20250217021850/https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/crime/article24584203.html |date=17 February 2025 }} 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.{{cite book|last=Investigations|first=United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Governmental Affairs. Permanent Subcommittee on|title=Organized Crime: 25 Years After Valachi : Hearings Before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Governmental Affairs|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1xJqPHe8ez4C&pg=PA726|year=1988|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|page=726|archive-url=https://archive.today/20230528053644/https://www.google.com/books/edition/Organized_Crime/1xJqPHe8ez4C?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA726&printsec=frontcover|archive-date=2023-05-28|url-status=live}} 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.{{cite web|url=https://www.gorillaconvict.com/2011/10/aaron-jones-2/|title=Street legends: Aaron Jones|author= Seth Ferranti|website=GorillaConvict.com|date=25 October 2011|archive-url=https://archive.today/20230528053706/https://www.gorillaconvict.com/2011/10/aaron-jones-2/|archive-date=2023-05-28|url-status=live}}
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."{{cite web|url=https://nacla.org/node/6661|title=The CIA, the Cold War, and Cocaine: The Connections of Christopher "Dudus" Coke|work=NACLA|access-date=23 March 2015|archive-url=https://archive.today/20121221011141/https://nacla.org/node/6661|archive-date=2012-12-21|url-status=live}}
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.{{cite web|url=http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/158840_Tension-in-Tivoli-as-US-awaits-word-on-Dudus-s-extradition|title=Tension in Tivoli as US awaits word on Dudus's extradition - News|work=Jamaica Observer|access-date=23 March 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150220044151/http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/158840_Tension-in-Tivoli-as-US-awaits-word-on-Dudus-s-extradition|archive-date=20 February 2015}}{{cite news|url=http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20090906/cleisure/cleisure1.html|title=EDITORIAL - This is not Somalia, we hope|publisher=The Gleaner|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090909053744/http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20090906/cleisure/cleisure1.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2009-09-09 |date=9 September 2009}} 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.{{cite news |title=Jamaica Declares State of Emergency |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jamaica-declares-state-of-emergency/|date=23 May 2010 |access-date=25 May 2010|archive-url=https://archive.today/20230528055043/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jamaica-declares-state-of-emergency/|archive-date=2023-05-28|url-status=live|agency= The Associated Press|publisher=CBS News}}{{cite news|title=Jamaica Declares State of Emergency|work=The New York Times|date=May 24, 2010|agency=Reuters|url=https://www.nytimes.com/video/multimedia/1247467906121/jamaica-declares-state-of-emergency.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20230106012144/https://www.nytimes.com/video/multimedia/1247467906121/jamaica-declares-state-of-emergency.html|archive-date=2023-01-06|url-status=live}}
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.{{cite news |date=31 January 2021 |title='Harry Dog', Dudus' 'ex-lieutenant', shot dead in West Kingston. |url=http://www.loopjamaica.com/content/harry-dog-dudus-ex-lieutenant-shot-dead-west-kingston |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210201040758/http://www.loopjamaica.com/content/harry-dog-dudus-ex-lieutenant-shot-dead-west-kingston |archive-date=2021-02-01 |access-date=4 February 2021 |agency=Loop News}}
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".{{cite news|last1=Lazar|first1=Zachary|title='A Brief History of Seven Killings' - Marlon James|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/26/books/review/a-brief-history-of-seven-killings-by-marlon-james-review.html|access-date=11 December 2016|work=The New York Times|date=23 October 2014|archive-url=https://archive.today/20211014053346/https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/26/books/review/a-brief-history-of-seven-killings-by-marlon-james-review.html|archive-date=2021-10-14|url-status=live}}
Christopher Coke and the Shower Posse were the subject of an episode of the Netflix documentary series, Drug Lords, released in 2018.{{cite episode|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8023764/?ref_=ttep_ep3|publisher=Internet Movie Database|title=Christopher Coke: Jamaica's Narco Prince|archive-url=https://archive.today/20230528054140/https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8023764/?ref_=ttep_ep3|archive-date=2023-05-28|url-status=live|series=Drug Lords|season=2|number=3}} 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
{{Portal|Jamaica}}
{{reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{Organized crime groups in the United States}}
{{Organized crime groups in Atlantic City}}
{{Organized crime groups in New York City}}
{{Organized crime in Philadelphia}}
{{Canadian gangs}}
Category:1981 establishments in Jamaica
Category:Gangs in New York City
Category:Gangs in Philadelphia
Category:Organizations established in 1981
Category:Organized crime groups in Canada
Category:Organized crime groups in Jamaica