Jamaican posse

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Jamaican posses, often referred to simply as posses, are a loose coalition of Jamaican gangs, based predominantly in Kingston, Montego Bay, London, New York City and Toronto, first being involved in drugs and arms trafficking in the early 1980s. Jamaican posses have links to the main Jamaican political parties, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the People's National Party (PNP).^[1]

The JLP posses dominate the west and south of Kingston and other smaller towns, while the PNP posses are mainly found in the eastern and central side; there are a few that state they are not allied to either political party. These are often in the northern slums of downtown Kingston. In the United Kingdom, these Jamaican gangsters would be referred to as yardies in reference to people who lived in "government yards" ("yard" is a Jamaican slang for home and surrounding areas). "Yardie" is an adjective describing any one from Jamaica in the aftermath of Hurricane Charlie, which hit Jamaica in 1951. They are strongly populated in London and are specifically known to have occupied and operate in Brixton, Harlesden, Tottenham, Hackney and Peckham among other areas.