Due to their father's drug profits, Christopher and his siblings grew up amidst wealth and attended elite private schools.

After his father died in 1992, Coke, at the age of 23, became the leader of the gang and the de facto authority of the Tivoli Gardens community in West Kingston.

Together with the gang's co-founder Vivian Blake, Lester Coke oversaw the distribution of huge amounts of cocaine and marijuana throughout Jamaica and the United States; they were blamed for more than 1000 murders in both countries during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Although the area had a history of extreme poverty, Coke earned immense wealth from the gang's profits and his family lived in luxury.

[10] The United States Department of Justice indicted Lester Coke and other key members of the gang, including Vivian Blake, on drug trafficking and murder charges in 1990.

Two years after his arrest, the senior Coke died in a mysterious fire at the General Penitentiary in Kingston, where he was being held pending extradition proceedings.

[18] By 27 May, at least 73 people had been killed in clashes between Jamaican security forces and gunmen in West Kingston, primarily in the neighbourhood of Tivoli Gardens.

It is chaired by Barbados judge Sir David Simmons with Justice Hazel Harris, Professor Anthony Harriott[21] and Velma Hylton QC.

[26] Coke said that his decision to surrender and face charges was based on a desire to end the drug-related violence in Jamaica,[27] to which he'd lost his sister, brother and father.

[27][29] On 30 August 2011, he pleaded guilty in front of Judge Robert P. Patterson, Jr. of United States District Court for the Southern District of New York to the following charges: racketeering conspiracy for trafficking large quantities of marijuana and cocaine into the United States, and conspiracy to commit assault in aid of racketeering, for his approval of the stabbing attack of a marijuana dealer in New York City.

By contrast, federal prosecutors presented documents depicting Coke as willing to commit brutal acts of violence to support his drug empire, and implicating him in at least five murders.

The Jamaican government provided evidence derived from wiretapping Coke's cellphone prior to his arrest; it had recorded at least 50,000 conversations dating back to 2004.