ALLEGED drug and arms dealer Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke believes that the best way of getting illegal guns off the streets is to dry up the supply of bullets.
According to Reverend Al Miller, the former Tivoli Gardens strongman made the suggestion during a meeting between both men inside the heavily fortified community two days before the security forces entered and crushed a militia assembled to prevent Coke’s capture by the police.
Miller, who heads the National Transformation Programme, told Chat! on Monday that he first met with Coke in January when he and members of the Peace Management Initiative met with various area leaders and dons across the Corporate Area, St Catherine and sections of Montego Bay.
According to Miller, he spoke with Coke at that time about the way forward for many of these communities which have been stifled by criminal activities and lack of developmental opportunities for young people.
Among the issues discussed then and again on May 22 when they met, was how the guns could be removed from the streets.
Miller said that Coke, who the United States is trying to have extradited to that country to answer major gun- and drug-trafficking charges, told him that this could not be done overnight.
“He suggested that the first move would be to dry up the supply of bullets because if there were no bullets then the guns would be useless,” Miller said.
The suggestion was made even as residents and gunmen loyal to Coke erected barricades at the entrances to Tivoli in preparation for a stand-off with the security forces.
Miller said Coke also maintained that he was pushing for more education, training and employment for the youths while being adamant that the incessant bloodletting benefited no one.
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