Legendary Jamaican drug lord Christopher "Dudus" Coke will appear before the federal court in Manhattan today on drug and weapons charges, after being extradited to the US yesterday. The search for Coke in Jamaica claimed over 70 lives.

Coke was pulled over in a car and arrested while heading for the US embassy in Kingston, Jamaica to turn himself in. He was wearing a wig and glasses (pictured below). Coke had been wanted by the US for running a vast drug and weapons operation between New York and Jamaica, and the search for him in Jamaica last month set off a deadly gun battle that took over 70 lives, most of them civilians. One of his former associates told the Jamaica Observer recently that when the violence started, "The man tek off like a puss when him hear the first bum (bomb) drop." The former associate called Dudus a "puss" on condition of anonymity.

Rather than suffer the same fate as his father, who was mysteriously burned alive in a Jamaican jail cell, Coke waived his right to an extradition trial and was taken directly to New York, where he could face life in prison on "charges of conspiracy to distribute marijuana and cocaine and conspiracy to illegally traffic in firearms." Coke has been called "the most powerful man in Jamaica" and has deep ties to the ruling government there.

[Images via AP, Splash News]