Residents of Kington’s poor district of Tivoli Gardens reacted with shock and disbelief to the news that extradited accused drug kingpin Christopher “Dudus” Coke arranged a plea bargain this week at Federal District Court in Manhattan. “I’m devastated,” one anonymous member of the Coke clan told the Jamaica Gleaner. Scores were killed in days of street-fighting in the district last year as police and army troops were deployed to hunt down Coke for extradition to the US. But in the end he cut a deal in which he pleaded guilty to trafficking large quantities of marijuana and cocaine, and approving the stabbing of a marijuana dealer in the Bronx in 2007, who apparently survived. Five murder charges that could have landed him life in prison were dropped. Coke faces a maximum term of 23 years; the plea deal does not require him to cooperate or testify on behalf of the government in any proceeding. (NYT, Jamaica Gleaner, Sept. 1)
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