After days of death and violence, man U.S. wanted disappears

Source: AP

KINGSTON, Jamaica -- After a raid that led to four days of gun battles in which nearly 50 people were killed, the reputed drug kingpin targeted may have fled the country, the government said Wednesday.

Christopher Coke, who helped the prime minister win elected office and is accused of trafficking marijuana and cocaine to the U.S., had months to stockpile weapons while the premier wavered over U.S. demands for his extradition.

Police and soldiers who fought their way into the barricaded Tivoli Gardens slum in west Kingston were conducting a door-to-door search, and the government reported calm Wednesday. Coke's lawyer has declined to confirm his whereabouts.

Smoke rose from extinguished fires in the slum, and sporadic gunfire rang out elsewhere in west Kingston. Security forces barred journalists from entering the battle zones around the capital on Jamaica's south coast, far from the tourist resorts on the north shore of the Caribbean island.


Read more: http://www.freep.com/article/20100527/NEWS07/5270426/1001/news/After-days-of-death-and-violence-man-U.S.-wanted-disappears

Drug Czar Kerlikowski (formerly a moderate) last week declared a new hard-line stance on drugs. Mr. Obama's Justice Department steps up prosecution of Medical Marijuana Users. 1200 Troops sent to the Mexican border to fight "drugs"... Obama visits Mexico to persuade Calderon to step up the WOD.. and now the raid on Jamaica?

Something is up with the WOD.. and I don't think it is good.

Nothing. Zip. Zilch. Nada. It has destroyed far more lives than it has saved.

I'm assuming that this man became a "drug kingpin" because he developed a flourishing black market for illegal goods. Maybe if they were legal and regulated, like all the other drugs I see advertised on TV, this guy would never have had an opportunity to become who he is now. It seems like after Prohibition was ended, all the turf wars and voilence surrounding booze running stopped.

Another waste of our tax money, like the war on terrorism. How is the war on poverty, the war on unemployment, the war on homelessness, or the war on hunger going? Oh, that's right...they aren't.

Its all part of the under-endowed MALE using violence to feel good