Alleged Jamaican gang leader buys newspaper ad to plead for freedom
7.19 p.m. ET (2320 GMT) June 13, 1999

By Lloyd Williams, Associated Press

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) Jamaicans to write officials and demand his release.

"I am asking you again for help in proving to the government of Jamaica and the public that they have the wrong man incarcerated,'' Blake's ad said. "I must be set free. I am a victim of the United States government propaganda.''

The plea follows a five-year effort to avoid extradition that ended with a ruling against Blake by the British Privy Council on May 25.

Blake, 49, has been on the "Most Wanted'' list in the United States for more than a decade for drug and murder charges. He was arrested in Kingston in 1994, and two Jamaican courts have rejected his appeals against extradition.

In his ad, which was titled "Appeal for Freedom and Justice,'' Blake noted he has never been convicted in Jamaica, "not even (for) a traffic ticket.'' He called himself a community leader.

"I have done nothing but good,'' the ad says.

But U.S. prosecutors claim the Shower Posse was responsible for drug-related murders throughout the United States in the 1980s and that Blake was one its three leaders.

Thirty-four alleged members of the gang were indicted in 1988 for murders in Miami, Los Angeles and the Bronx.

Blake faces eight counts of murder in Miami and is wanted on racketeering, drug possession and drug distribution charges in Florida and Virginia. Police say he escaped a nationwide dragnet by boarding a cruise ship to Jamaica.

Prosecutors say if Blake were convicted of all charges against him, he would face maximum sentences totaling 398 years in prison and $15.5 million in fines.