AUDIO: Politicians, businessmen named at Dudus hearing
Published:Tuesday | May 22, 2012 | 5:35 PM
Fern Whyte, Gleaner Correspondent
MANHATTAN, New York:
The afternoon session of the evidentiary hearing of confessed Jamaican crime lord Christopher Dudus Coke featured more compelling evidence about the criminal pursuits of the man also called “Presi” and his link to prominent politicians and businessmen in Jamaica.
Coke’s former lieutenant, Jermaine 'Cowboy' Cohen, who is jailed in America, was on the witness stand for more than three hours when he told the United States Southern District Court in Lower Manhattan that businessman Justin O’Gilvie was Coke’s “chief finance minister”.
Cohen also gave graphic details of an attempt by Coke to kill him.
READ: Informant spills beans on Dudus
According to Cohen, Coke wanted to kill him because he had an altercation with an aunt of the former Tivoli Gardens don in which he punched her in the face.
Cohen said his altercation with Coke’s aunt sparked a feud between his men and Coke’s ‘soldiers’ which resulted in frequent shooting incidents in Kingston.
Cohen also said in 2004, politicians, Bruce Golding and Edward Seaga, and businessmen Saleem Lazarus and Justin O’Gilvie met with Coke in a bid to quell the feud among his loyalists and those of Dudus.