Headline PH: Jamaica cops attack drug lord's slum stronghold

KINGSTON, Jamaica – More than 1,000 police and soldiers assaulted a public housing complex occupied by heavily armed gangsters defending an alleged drug lord wanted by the U.S., waging a major offensive in the heart of West Kingston's ramshackle slums.

Security forces broke through barbed-wire barricades and fought their way into the warren-like Tivoli Gardens neighborhood Monday afternoon. Sporadic gunfire could be heard into the night echoing across the darkened slums, where authorities cut off power. Military helicopters flying with their lights off buzzed overhead.

Masked gunmen swarmed around West Kingston trying to prevent the extradition of Christopher "Dudus" Coke, who has been indicted in New York on drug and arms trafficking charges. The U.S. Justice Department considers him one of the world's most dangerous drug lords.

While fighting raged in Tivoli Gardens, gunbattles spread to other volatile slums close to Kingston, the capital that sits on Jamaica's southeastern coast, far from the tourist resorts on the north shore.

It was not immediately clear what was happening inside the virtual fortresses where Coke's supporters began massing last week after Prime Minister Bruce Golding dropped his nine-month stonewalling against extraditing Coke, who has ties to the governing party.

Authorities said two police officers had been killed and at least six wounded since Sunday, and at least one Jamaican soldier was shot dead during Monday's fighting at Tivoli Gardens, the Caribbean island's first housing project. There were no details on casualties inside that neighborhood or other poor areas where clashes erupted.

By DAVID McFADDEN,
Associated Press Writer

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