NEW YORK, June 25 (UPI) -- Alleged Jamaican gang leader Christopher "Dudus" Coke pleaded not guilty to drug charges Friday in federal court in New York, authorities said.
Coke, 41, was extradited from Jamaica Wednesday to face federal drug trafficking and gun-running charges nearly a month after about 76 people were killed in several days of fighting in Kingston as Jamaican security forces tried to capture him, the New York Daily News reported.
Outside the courtroom, local relatives pumped up Coke's reputation for handing out his allegedly ill-gotten gains to those who live in Kingston's Tivoli Gardens slum.
"He's a good man," said a cousin from New York, Tanio Jackson. "A drug dealer? That's not the man I know. The man I know helps children, he supports people in the community."
If convicted, Coke faces life in prison.
In a statement issued Thursday by his attorneys, Coke said he would fight the charges but decided not to fight extradition because he hoped to bring a stop to the violence accompanied the police search for him.
"Everyone -- the whole country -- has been adversely affected by the process that has surrounded my extradition, and I hope that my action today will go some way to healing all who have suffered," the statement said.
The United States had been trying to extradite Coke since 2009. Jamaican government officials resisted extradition but dropped their objection last month, ABC News reported.
