RANKING DREAD Vinyl Records and CDs

... as a fugitive, wanted for questioning in connection with a string of crimes which included the shootings of four police officers. In Jamaica he’d reportedly been an enforcer under JLP (Jamaican Labour Party) don Claude Massop who led a posse in the ‘garrisons’ around Rema, Tivoli Gardens and Denham Town in Kingston, Jamaica. Massop’s JLP aligned group would later become known as the Shower Posse and Ranking Dreads alias of Boyark was linked to the killings of at least 29 drug dealing rivals aligned with PNP (People’s National Party) posses. After jumping bail for one of the police officer shootings he fled to London under the name of Errol Codling in 1978 and after authorities failed to extradite him from Britain a year later, he set up base from an address in Darenth Road, Stamford Hill. Ranking Dread became a recognised name and face across Black London including Stoke Newington, Clapton, Brixton and Peckham. He also moved throughout Britain and abroad, having set up networks in Nottingham and New York. In fact, Ranking Dread was deported from the United States in 1983 after receiving a conviction for possession of cannabis. From his base in Stamford Hill and Stoke Newington in north London Ranking Dread established a drinking club, a prostitution network, and through armed robbery funded a series of shipments of cannabis to both Britain and the United States. In 1986 Ranking Dread became Scotland Yard’s number one suspect in the murder of Nigerian drug dealer Innocent Egbulefu who was thrown out of the window of a high-rise flat in Islington, eight floors at a height of ninety feet. It’s thought that Egbulefu double-crossed Ranking Dread and his associates by selling them a consignment of marijuana concocted of herbs and tea leaves. Returning shortly after examining their fake product, the men forced their way back into the flat, during which time Egbulefu ended up plunging to his death. The events had happened so quickly that Egbulefu was still holding the remote-control unit for his television set. In May 1988 investigative television series, The Cook Report, labelled Ranking Dread as the head of Shower Posse operations in the United Kingdom in their exposé of the Yardies. Programme presenter Roger Cook singled out Ranking Dread as a Jamaican Mafia-like master villain. Cook intercepted him walking down a busy London street, but when these accusations were put to the man himself, he coolly denied them without even breaking his stride. Ranking Dread’s street reputation also did not go unchallenged and at least one-attempt at taking over his business interests was documented whereby a British born teen attacked him with a machete in a London shebeen. He had several very close scrapes, some people putting his escapes down to his belief in Obeah, a folk magic and religious practice in the West Indies derived from West Africa. Some gang members believe that occult rituals can protect them in gang fights by cursing their rivals, and even protect themselves from bullets. It seems though that one thing they cannot protect against is law enforcement. On 14th April 1988 police officers raided a shebeen at Clapton Way, east London. The derelict property owned by Hackney Council had become a focal point for serious and organised crime, particularly the trafficking of cocaine. Following several weeks’ surveillance, a team of thirty-two officers stormed the address and arrested twenty suspects including Ranking Dread. As well as the arrest police recovered several weapons including a machete. Small quantities of cannabis and cocaine were discovered, however, there were no firearms or crack. Under the name of Errol Codling, Ranking Dread was allowed bail by magistrates at Highb