Lester Lloyd Coke, SYM commonly known as Jim Brown, was a Jamaican drug lord and the founder of the Shower Posse, a gang based out of the Tivoli Gardens garrison community in West Kingston. Coke was identified by the Netflix documentary ReMastered: Who Shot the Sheriff? as present and a party to the shooting of Bob Marley on 3 December 1976.
Shower Posse After Tivoli Gardens strongman Claudius Massop was killed by police in February 1979, Lester Lloyd "Jim Brown" Coke did not immediately inherit an absolute leadership vacuum. Senior Phoenix Gang leader Carl "Byah" Mitchell remained alive and highly influential within Tivoli Gardens and Denham Town through the 1980 election cycle. Coke consolidated authority over the local remnants of the Phoenix Gang gradually, stepping fully into the primary leadership role as Mitchell's mental and physical health collapsed from years of heavy drug abuse prior to his death at St. Joseph's Hospital on January 10, 1984. Coke subsequently fled Jamaica for the United States later in 1984 following his implication in the Rema killings. While in the U.S., Coke teamed up with Vivian Blake, whose established drug distribution lines integrated with Coke's local enforcers to form the international Shower Posse.
The Shower Posse dealt cocaine and cannabis across Jamaica and the United States. They are also tied to a large number of murders in both countries.
Criminal history in the United States
1984 Miami drug house homicide Following his lead involvement in the Rema killings in May 1984, an arrest warrant was issued for Coke, prompting him to flee Jamaica for the United States. In late 1984, just six weeks after arriving in the United States, Coke smoked crack cocaine and passed out inside a Miami drug house, making him an easy target for a robbery. The perpetrators stole cash and jewellery from him. In response to the theft, Coke mobilized a heavily armed faction of the Shower Posse to locate the individuals responsible. The search culminated in a retaliatory raid on an inner-city crack house in November 1984, during which gunmen shot and killed five people.https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2010/05/31/jamaican-gang-violence-has-roots-going-back-to-the-1980s/ One victim, a pregnant woman, was found in a praying position that suggested she was begging for her life, according to officials.https://www.sun-sentinel.com/1988/10/14/agents-sweep-drug-gangs-national-busts-aim-at-jamaican-posses-11-held-in-broward/
Federal racketeering indictment The November 1984 quintuple homicide subsequently served as a foundational component of a federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) investigation into the organization's activities. In October 1988, a federal grand jury in Miami unsealed a 62-count indictment charging Coke, co-leader Vivian Blake, and dozens of associates with racketeering, drug conspiracy, and multiple counts of murder. The legal proceedings marked the first time federal prosecutors utilized the RICO statute against a Jamaican criminal organization. Coke avoided immediate prosecution on these charges because he was deported to Jamaica in March 1987 to face murder charges re the Rema Killings, where he remained until his arrest and subsequent death during extradition proceedings in 1992.https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2010/05/31/jamaican-gang-violence-has-roots-going-back-to-the-1980s/
1985 Miami raid, 1987 deportation, and 1990 detention In July 1985, a U.S. Marshals task force tracked Coke to a safe house in the Norland neighbourhood of Northwest Miami-Dade County, Florida.Dougherty, Kevin (5 June 1988). "Drug Trade Eats Away at Jamaica Ruthless Gangs in US Kill for Fun and Profit". The Orlando Sentinel. https://orlandosentinel.com A heavily armed Special Response Team conducted a morning raid on the residence, arresting Coke along with ten other individuals."Lester Lloyd Coke Biographical Entry". Wikipedia. https://wikipedia.org Inside the home, law enforcement seized more than 100 pounds (45 kg) of marijuana. Although Coke was initially booked on federal drug trafficking charges, the charges against him were subsequently dropped after another member of the Shower Posse stepped forward to claim sole ownership of the contraband.
Despite evading local drug charges, Coke remained under federal scrutiny. He was subsequently arrested by Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) agents in Miami after attempting to apply for permanent residency (Green Card) status."Police hold Jim Brown". The Daily Gleaner. 13 July 1990. p. 1. https://newspaperarchive.com Following this arrest, U.S. federal authorities held him in a maximum-security detention facility for over a year before his eventual removal."Jim Brown stays in jail". The Daily Gleaner. 2 August 1990. p. 3. https://newspaperarchive.com Jamaican law enforcement initiated extradition proceedings against him relating to a standing May 1985 arrest warrant accusing him of orchestrating a mass shooting in the Rema neighborhood of Kingston in May 1984."Tivoli's Jim Brown trial set for April 27". The Daily Gleaner. 23 April 1987. p. 3. https://newspaperarchive.com However, due to significant delays in the Jamaican bureaucratic system, U.S. federal authorities chose to bypass the lengthy extradition process and deported him to Jamaica on 12 March 1987. Upon arrival, Coke was indicted alongside three co-defendants—Delroy Cephas, Carl Robinson, and Joseph Dunbar—for the fatal shooting of seven people in Rema. The state's case ultimately collapsed after key witnesses recanted their statements, leading to his acquittal."Lester Lloyd Coke Biographical Entry". Wikipedia. https://wikipedia.org
Coke's legal entanglements continued into the next decade. On 12 July 1990, police detained him in the Corporate Area of Kingston for interrogation regarding an outbreak of gang warfare in the Hannah Town and Fletcher’s Land neighbourhoods."Police hold Jim Brown". The Gleaner. 13 July 1990. p. 1. The violence, which had resulted in a shootout on 3 July that wounded five police officers, was reportedly triggered by a search for individuals accused of stealing cocaine, weapons, and having knowledge of the 2 May 1990 murder of Coke's 16-year-old daughter, Bridgette Coke, in West Kingston. Within days of his imprisonment, extradition charges were brought against him. This kept him in jail continuously until he lost his life to a mysterious cell fire almost two years later.
Criminal history in Jamaica
Murder of Jerome White (1988)
On the night of 10 June 1988, Kingston minibus driver Jerome White was dragged from behind the steering wheel of his Route 40 bus on Spanish Town Road near Darling Street. He was accused by a group of men of “bad-driving” them in their car, taken down the street, and later found stabbed and battered to death.https://gleaner.newspaperarchive.com/kingston-gleaner/1988-10-06/
Coke, described as a building contractor of Building 14, Tivoli Gardens, was arrested by detectives on 6 September 1988 and formally charged with White’s murder following a ruling by the Director of Public Prosecutions. A preliminary enquiry began in the Kingston Resident Magistrate’s Court before Resident Magistrate Mahadev Dukharan.https://gleaner.newspaperarchive.com/kingston-gleaner/1988-10-06/
The enquiry was repeatedly delayed. On 5 October 1988 it was adjourned because the main civilian witness failed to appear. On 31 October–1 November 1988 the Crown called witnesses including Glen Graham, who testified that he had sold a blue Honda Accord to a man known only as “James or Jim Brown” earlier that year; Graham said he could not identify the purchaser in court. The bus owner, Henry Bryan, and Det. Insp. Arthur Martin of the Homicide Squad also gave evidence. The conductor of the bus, Dalton Gayle, could not be located despite repeated efforts by police. Coke was remanded in custody and the enquiry adjourned to 7 November 1988.https://gleaner.newspaperarchive.com/kingston-gleaner/1988-12-15/
January 1989 Spanish Town Road incident In January 1989, Coke was involved in a physical altercation at an Esso gas station located at 76½ Spanish Town Road in Kingston."Gas station put under police guard after clash with Lester Lloyd Coke (alias Jim Brown)". The Daily Gleaner. 12 January 1989. p. 2. https://newspaperarchive.com The confrontation began when the gas station's operator attempted to push Coke's smoking vehicle away from a fuel pump to mitigate a fire hazard, leading to an exchange of blows involving Coke, his son Tony(Jah T), and senior gang associate Ludlow "Blood" Wilson. A plainclothes police officer intervened to defuse the initial altercation after Wilson and other members of the mobile party threatened to return with firearms, after which Coke's group temporarily withdrew toward Tivoli Gardens.
Shortly following the initial dispute, responding police units intercepted the returning convoy near Mother White's Bridge on Spanish Town Road. A shootout ensued between the authorities and individuals in the convoy, resulting in the injury of a police constable and the death of a Tivoli Gardens enforcer named Michael Powell. The incident escalated security concerns in the area, requiring a continuous police guard at the gas station due to subsequent bomb threats, and it drew public statements from People's National Party (PNP) officials Michael Manley and Portia Simpson, who clarified that the dispute was entirely non-political.
Rema killings (1984) In May 1984, a violent clash broke out between factions of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) in the neighbouring West Kingston communities of Tivoli Gardens and Wilton Gardens (better known as Rema). The attack arose from an internal political fracture among the neighboring garrison strongholds; activists in Rema felt that Tivoli Gardens was receiving disproportionate political patronage, while Tivolites accused Rema residents of acting as informants."Nine charged with murder in Rema riots". The Kingston Gleaner. 6 June 1984. p. 2. https://newspaperarchive.com On the morning of 8 May, gunmen from Tivoli Gardens entered Rema, firing into the high-rise blocks. Fighting continued through the night and into the following day. Seven people were killed and several others wounded. Among the dead were Owen Brown, Keith Marshall, and Keith Graham. Houses and businesses were burned, and hundreds of residents fled the area.https://gleaner.newspaperarchive.com/kingston-gleaner/1984-05-10/ Following the initial raid, retaliatory feuds spread to Denham Town and Rose Town, ultimately claiming at least 11 lives by late May.
Contemporary reports described gangs of armed youths, some carrying M16s, patrolling the streets and demanding to know the whereabouts of “rats.” The violence was internal to the JLP rather than the usual party-versus-party confrontations of the period. Prime Minister Edward Seaga, who was also the member of parliament for West Kingston, later said the trouble had started with the maltreatment of a young woman from Rema who had a boyfriend in nearby Rose Town. Attacks followed, people from Rose Town fled into Tivoli, and the situation escalated beyond control despite Seaga's direct intervention on 10 May.https://gleaner.newspaperarchive.com/kingston-gleaner/1984-05-10/https://gleaner.newspaperarchive.com/kingston-gleaner/1984-05-11/
In the subsequent police sweep, authorities detained 51 suspects at the Maximum Security facility in Spanish Town. Nine individuals were formally charged with murder in connection with the riots, including 24-year-old Justin O'Givlie of Rema—who would later emerge as a prominent West Kingston businessman and close financial associate of Coke's son, Christopher "Dudus" Coke—and Patrick "Pec Wei" Edward, who was indicted for the Moore Street mass shooting of four laborers, including a seven-year-old schoolgirl.