Update on Jamaica

A few updates on the situation in Jamaica.

• The official body count is still at 44, but Jamaican newspapers are reporting that the morgues are nearly full, not to mention those injured and some 240 detained.
• Life seems to return to some semblance of normal in Kingston, after much of the city was shut down over the last few days. Schools remain closed, though.
• The text of the indictment, filed at the US District Court in Manhattan, is here (pdf). (H/t to the UK Times for the link.) Specifically, it alleges two counts: conspiracy to distribute marijuana and cocaine, and firearms trafficking conspiracy. Coke could face a life sentence in the US if convicted.
• The NYT reports how the indictment was the result of US authorities following court-authorized wiretaps and surveillance, all based off a tip from a Jamaican facing a marijuana conviction.

This whole Dudus incident begs us to understand crime as competition in state-making, per this recent presentation by Brookings’ Vanda Felbab-Brown. In Jamaica’s garrison system, Christopher Coke is just one of many nonstate actors providing security and social benefits to marginalized areas where the government fails to. His extradition won’t solve the crime problem — nor the governance one.