Alleged Jamaica drug lord arrested

But the Al Miller, an influential evangelical preacher who facilitated the surrender of Coke’s brother earlier this month, told the Associated Press news agency that Coke was prepared to surrender to authorities at the US embassy in Kingston when police stopped his vehicle on a highway outside the capital.

‘Wanted to surrender’

“A contact was made on his behalf that he wanted to give himself in,” Miller said. “I therefore made arrangements with his lawyers because he wanted to go ahead with the extradition process, so we communicated with the US embassy because that’s where he would feel more comfortable.”

Miller said police captured Coke on the way to the embassy and then took him to the nearby Spanish Town police headquarters.

Miller said Coke contacted him to ask his help in arranging the surrender at the embassy because he did not trust the police not to harm him if he surrendered to them.

“He also wanted to waive his right to an extradition hearing so that he could go to the US for a trial,” said Miller, a minister at the nondenominational Whole Life Ministry.

US prosecutors have described Coke as the current leader of the “Shower Posse” that murdered hundreds of people by showering them with bullets during the cocaine wars of the 1980s.

Coke was known as “president” to the people of his slum, serving as community leader and enforcer in the gritty neighbourhood in an area that the government acknowledges it has long neglected.

He also commanded a private militia and was a strong supporter of the ruling Jamaica Labour party.

Jamaica initially refused requests to extradite him to New York for trial after his indictment last year, and the case had strained relations between the US and Jamaica.

But the government tried to arrest him last month and in recent days offered a $60,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.