| Founded | c. 1981; 44 years ago (1981)[1] |
|---|---|
| Founders | Vivian Blake andLester Lloyd Coke[2] |
| Founding location | Tivoli Gardens,Kingston, Jamaica[3] |
| Years active | c. 1981–present |
| Territory | Jamaica, Canada, United States and United Kingdom[4] |
| Ethnicity | Jamaican |
| Activities | Drug trafficking, firearms trafficking, kidnapping, robbery, human trafficking, money laundering, murder[3] |
| Allies | Jamaica Labour Party[1] |
TheShower Posse is aJamaican gang, started byLester Lloyd Coke, which is involved indrug andarms smuggling. Its home is inTivoli Gardens inJamaica. It has several North American branches. The North American branches were first founded byVivian Blake in the Canadian city ofToronto, Ontario.[5] The gang operates in expatriate Jamaican communities in the US states ofNew York,New Jersey,Pennsylvania, and the city ofMiami, Florida.[5][6][7][8]
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.[9] Another view is that it is a reference to the gang showering opponents with bullets.[5] A third theory is that the gang got its name from theJamaica Labour Party (JLP) election slogan 'Shower', which was a response to thePNP's 'Power' that was coined fromManley's 'Power for the people' slogan in the 1970s.[10]
The Shower Posse originated in theTivoli Gardens neighbourhood ofKingston circa 1981.[1] One of the gang's founders,[4]Lester Lloyd "Jim Brown" Coke, became the chief political enforcer for theJamaica Labour Party (JLP) inWest Kingston after the death ofClaude Massop, who was killed in a shootout with police in February 1979. With the assistance of the United States,Edward Seaga's JLP ousted thePeople's National Party (PNP) led byMichael Manley, who was alleged to be aligned withFidel Castro of Cuba, in the1980 Jamaican general election.[2]
In exchange for the United States' support, the JLP embarked on a campaign ofganja eradication. Asganja 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 forcocaine from South America to the United States. The Shower Posse exploited the cocaine trade to amass wealth and influence.[2] The JLP-aligned Shower Posse has been provided with arms, training, and transport to the United States by theCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA).[11] The gang's primary activities involve the distribution ofcrack cocaine andmarijuana, and the theft or illegal purchase and exportation of firearms, using violence to expand into new territories.[12]
Coke led the Shower Posse from Kingston whileVivian Blake, who was the other of the two leading figures in the gang,[2] became the gang's most senior member in the United States.[13] According toMetro-Dade Police Department Sergeant Kevin Dougherty, who investigated Coke: "It seemed likeMiami was their secondary base of operations".[14] Blake established the Shower Posse's U.S. operations, withcells in Miami,New York City,Kansas City,Chicago,Philadelphia,Los Angeles and other cities,[2] primarily on theEast Coast.[12] The Shower Posse became the first Jamaican gang to branch out of New York City intoSouth Jersey.[12] In New Jersey, the gang formed drug networks inNewark,East Orange,Irvington,Camden,Atlantic City,Vineland,Trenton andBridgeton.[1]
In 1985, Donovan Clarke founded a Shower Posse cell in Philadelphia and the South Jersey counties ofAtlantic,Burlington andCamden. The Dog Posse challenged the Shower Posse for control of operations in New Jersey and Philadelphia.[12] On 4 August 1985, a gun battle erupted at a picnic attended by approximately 2,000 Jamaicans inOakland, New Jersey, during which elements of the Shower Posse andSpangler Posse fromBrooklyn and theBronx fought with theBoston-based Dog Posse and Tel Aviv Posse. Three people were killed, nine were wounded, and police retrieved thirty-three handguns from the scene.[12]
In September 1988, a federal grand jury in Miami indicted 34 members of the Shower Posse, including Blake and Coke.[1] Blake's two half-brothers, Errol Hussing and Tony Bruce, who headed the New York City operations of the Shower Posse, were also indicted.[13]
The Shower Posse was involved in a drug war with theJunior Black Mafia inSouthwest Philadelphia during the 1980s and early 1990s.[15]
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 "politicalenforcer", as well as to the CIA, going as far to state that "the United States made me what I am."[16]
In 2009, theUnited States began to demand thatChristopher 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.[17][18] 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 thatwarrantless 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 ofcivil unrest within Kingston, and especially Tivoli Gardens.[19][20]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.[21]
The 2014 novelA Brief History of Seven Killings byMarlon 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".[22]
Christopher Coke and the Shower Posse were the subject of an episode of theNetflix documentary series,Drug Lords, released in 2018.[23] 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. All 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.
