Under two years left for ‘Dudus’

Jamaican drug lord Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke is now set to be released from prison in the United States (US) in almost 21 months after authorities there sliced another year off the prison time.

This development comes as popular pastor Merrick ‘Al’ Miller, a longtime friend of the Coke family, said he has been told that the reputed Shower Posse leader is participating in religious-based and other programmes in prison.

“I know that he is spending time in the Word of God … and growing in that area of his life. That’s what I was told a couple years ago,” Miller told The Gleaner yesterday, making reference to Coke.

The new release date for Coke, 57, is January 29, 2028, according to an update on the US Bureau of Prisons (BOP) website.

This is the second time in nearly 15 months that Coke has had one year shaved off his prison time, likely for good behaviour, according to the US Department of Justice (DOJ).

Last February, Coke’s release date was listed as January 25, 2029, nearly 17 months earlier than his original July 4, 2030, release date, BOP records show.

His successful participation in and completion of approved evidence-based recidivism reduction programmes and other productive activities will also make him eligible for further reductions through earn-time credits, the DOJ previously said in response to questions submitted by The Gleaner.

Coke is serving a 23-year prison sentence, which was imposed in August 2011 when he pleaded guilty to one count each of racketeering conspiracy and conspiracy to commit assault with a dangerous weapon.

He is being held at the Fort Dix Federal Correctional Institution in New Jersey, which has “no bars, towers, or locks”, according to its website.

The BOP acknowledged that under the First Step Act, which was enacted in the US in 2018, every incarcerated individual earns time for good conduct, which is factored into their release date.

Under subsequent amendments to the legislation, qualifying inmates are eligible for the maximum 54 days off their prison time for good conduct for each year of the sentence imposed by the court.

A spokesman for the BOP yesterday declined to comment on the programmes Coke has participated in, explaining that it is forbidden for several reasons.

“For privacy, safety, and security reasons, we do not discuss the conditions of confinement for any individual in our custody, including programming,” the spokesman said in response to questions submitted by The Gleaner.

However, according to the agency’s website, it provides “progressive and humane treatment and services” to federal inmates and implements programmes that facilitate their successful reintegration into society.

Religion, education, medical care, and mental health are some of the areas covered by the programme.

Miller, the founding pastor of Fellowship Tabernacle Church in St Andrew, acknowledged that he had not spoken directly with the Coke family “in about a year or two”, but he said that from what he had heard, Coke was participating in several programmes, some of them “religious-based”.

“That’s my understanding, and that’s very good. I trust that it will be an opportunity for his own life to find anchor in the source of life in a deepening relationship with God so that he can give to the world,” the clergyman said.

Coke was arrested by the Jamaican security forces in June 2010 after he was found in a vehicle that was being driven by Miller, who has publicly said he was taking the former Tivoli Gardens strongman to the US Embassy in Kingston to surrender.

The arrest ended weeks of mounting tension across the Jamaican capital, triggered by the months-long delay by the then Bruce Golding-led Government to authorise Coke’s extradition to the US to face criminal charges.

A month before his arrest, Coke mysteriously escaped his Tivoli Gardens stronghold after two days of fierce gun battles between the security forces and heavily armed thugs loyal to him.

When the shooting ended, 69 civilians and one member of the Jamaica Defence Force were killed in what has been described as one of the darkest periods in modern Jamaican history. editorial@gleanerjm.com