Joseph Goldstein of the New York Times is reporting that Christopher Coke, a Jamaican drug kingpin, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to racketeering conspiracy charges in Federal District Court in Manhattan.
Coke pleaded guilty to trafficking large quantities of marijuana and cocaine as well as approving the stabbing of a marijuana dealer in New York; he faces a maximum sentence of 23 years in prison. The plea deal does not require him to cooperate or to testify on behalf of the government in any proceeding.
"I'm pleading guilty because I am," he told Judge Robert P. Patterson Jr. That statement is in sharp contrast to Coke's evasion of police during an international manhunt, resulting in the deaths of more than 70 people, some of whom were unarmed, according to witnesses.
Coke's plea deal came together in recent days after prosecutors told his lawyers that various confidential informants were prepared to testify that Coke had been involved in five murders, one of his lawyers, Stephen H. Rosen, said. One witness was prepared to testify that Coke used a chain saw to kill someone who had stolen drugs from him, according to a filing.
Under the original indictment, Coke could have faced a life sentence if convicted.
Facing 23 years as opposed to life is not bad for someone with the amount of blood on Coke's hands. We won't mention the havoc he wreaked throughout the U.S., U.K. and Jamaica and the thousands of lives that are irreparably damaged because of his actions. Perhaps we should call him the Teflon Don?
Read more at the New York Times.
In other news: No U.S. Job Growth in August.