Christopher "Dudus" Coke, who was captured in Jamaica after eluding a month-long assault, is accused of running a violent drug cartel but is revered in some slums as a modern-day Robin Hood.
The son of one of the Caribbean island's most legendary dons, Coke built his own name as a businessman, a political player - and chief of the "Shower Posse," a group named not for cleanliness but for showering bullets on foes.
Coke's gang effectively controlled Tivoli Gardens, a ramshackle part of western Kingston where he created a mini-economy providing both livelihoods and protection to residents desperately seeking both.
"They see him as a Robin Hood or even a Jesus - someone who stands up for them and is willing to die for them, even if he is an evil Messiah," said the Reverend Earlmont Williams, the pastor of a local church.
"The Jamaican people are very religious and also creative. We tend to combine different religious practices and theologies," he said.
The Shower Posse and other gangs' reach extended well into mainstream Kingston. Businesses quietly paid money to ensure safety and some politicians enlisted self-described thugs to drum up votes when elections rolled around.
Prime Minister Bruce Golding himself represents Tivoli Gardens, where the Shower Posse supported the ruling Jamaica Labour Party.
But after months of hesitation, Mr Golding unleashed the offensive to capture Coke that left at least 73 dead - raising hopes among many Jamaicans that the island's nexus between politics and gangs has finally been broken.
As Jamaica's elite soured on the underworld in the 1980s, the Shower Posse allegedly found a more stable source of cash - drugs and guns.
While cartels from Colombia, Mexico and Panama have focused on the western United States, the Shower Posse allegedly led a ring funnelling cocaine from South America to the US east coast.
US prosecutors in August put out an indictment for Coke, accusing the Shower Posse of supplying much of the cocaine in New York. If convicted, he faces life in a US prison and millions of dollars in penalties.
Criminal investigators estimate that the Shower Posse is responsible for thousands of deaths since the 1990s as they battled to secure the flow of drugs and guns.
"They were really at the cusp of the burgeoning crack-cocaine trade in the early '80s in the US and Canada," said Michael Chettleburgh, a Canadian expert on crime and author of "Young Thugs: Inside the Dangerous World of Canadian Street Gangs."
"And they had really good timing because they had begun to snap from the leash of their political masters," he said.
Unlike brash gang leaders who flaunt their wealth, Coke took a comparatively low-key approach. Little footage of him exists. Even at the small restaurants and guesthouses on his home turf of Tivoli Gardens, some residents say they would not recognize him if he walked in.
In defying arrest, he may have been trying to avoid the fate of his father, Jim Brown, who died in 1992 in a mysterious fire after being taken into custody.
Some Jamaicans are convinced that Jim Brown was killed because he knew too much. But he has not been forgotten in Tivoli Gardens where large portraits of him remain on the walls, some with the inscription, "Jim Brown - One Man Against the World."
"They see him as a Robin Hood or even a Jesus - someone who stands up for them and is willing to die for them, even if he is an evil Messiah," said the Reverend Earlmont Williams, the pastor of a local church.
"The Jamaican people are very religious and also creative. We tend to combine different religious practices and theologies," he said.
The Shower Posse and other gangs' reach extended well into mainstream Kingston. Businesses quietly paid money to ensure safety and some politicians enlisted self-described thugs to drum up votes when elections rolled around.
Prime Minister Bruce Golding himself represents Tivoli Gardens, where the Shower Posse supported the ruling Jamaica Labour Party.
But after months of hesitation, Mr Golding unleashed the offensive to capture Coke that left at least 73 dead - raising hopes among many Jamaicans that the island's nexus between politics and gangs has finally been broken.
As Jamaica's elite soured on the underworld in the 1980s, the Shower Posse allegedly found a more stable source of cash - drugs and guns.
While cartels from Colombia, Mexico and Panama have focused on the western United States, the Shower Posse allegedly led a ring funnelling cocaine from South America to the US east coast.
US prosecutors in August put out an indictment for Coke, accusing the Shower Posse of supplying much of the cocaine in New York. If convicted, he faces life in a US prison and millions of dollars in penalties.
Criminal investigators estimate that the Shower Posse is responsible for thousands of deaths since the 1990s as they battled to secure the flow of drugs and guns.
"They were really at the cusp of the burgeoning crack-cocaine trade in the early '80s in the US and Canada," said Michael Chettleburgh, a Canadian expert on crime and author of "Young Thugs: Inside the Dangerous World of Canadian Street Gangs."
"And they had really good timing because they had begun to snap from the leash of their political masters," he said.
Unlike brash gang leaders who flaunt their wealth, Coke took a comparatively low-key approach. Little footage of him exists. Even at the small restaurants and guesthouses on his home turf of Tivoli Gardens, some residents say they would not recognize him if he walked in.
In defying arrest, he may have been trying to avoid the fate of his father, Jim Brown, who died in 1992 in a mysterious fire after being taken into custody.
Some Jamaicans are convinced that Jim Brown was killed because he knew too much. But he has not been forgotten in Tivoli Gardens where large portraits of him remain on the walls, some with the inscription, "Jim Brown - One Man Against the World."
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