here's a link to a report from the house of commons about a one mr. ranking dread:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/p ... ens-4.html
its about a third of the way down, column 181 under the title mr. errol codling.
and this is taken from a post in another forum about ranking dread, taken from a book called gangland britain:
With Seaga’s long run ended, the JLP gunmen found themselves not only targeted by death squads but also painfully short of funding. Dozens left the island and, once safely abroad, saw the burgeoning cannabis trade a way of financing their battles and putting the JLP back on top.
One of the first to make the break, and the virtual pioneer of Jamaican organized crime in Britain, was Robert Blackwood, also known as Bowyark and Rankin Dread he had been a notorious enforcer and the right-hand man of Claude Massop, a Don who ran the JLP ‘garrison’ in the Rema district until he was killed by the police in mysterious circumstances.
Bowyark’s name had been linked to the murder of at least 29 PNP and drug dealing rivals and a further 4 policemen, but bringing him to justice proved problematic. By the time one of the cop killings came to trial, three of the witnesses had been murdered and a fourth had ‘lost his memory’. The charges were dropped.
After massop’s death, bowyark assumed control of rema but, after being involved in a shootout with 2 police officers, decided to jump bail and ‘go foreign’, obtaining a false passport and fleeing to London under the name of errol codling in 1978.
An attempt to extradite him from Britain in 1979 failed and he settled into his new life. His 6 fake passports recorded a host of travels – Miami, new york, Bristol, Sheffield, Birmingham and Dublin – cities where he would set up drug dealsand distribution networks, staffing his outfit with trusted friends from back home.
In London, Bowyark based himself at darneth road in Stamford hill, though he also had addresses in Brixton and Stoke Newington. Describing himself as a musician/record producer, he set about making his name, first legitimately, cutting a record, ‘hey fatty boom boom’, which reached the top ten in 1980.
‘I was famous. I had the Mercedes. I had flashy jewellery and clothes. I had it all. And there were always girls. Sometimes I had a different girl every night,’ he said later
but bowyark’s heart wasn’t in the musicbusiness. From a base in hackney, north London, he slowly started to build a new criminal empire. He opened a drinking club, ran a string of prostitutes, dabbled in counterfeit currency, and funded a series of cannabis shipments to both Britain and America through a number of armed robberies.
Along the way he also picked up two rape charges – later dropped when the victims refused to testify – and ten children from eight different women. But he never lost sight of his main goal – financing the JLP’s struggle – and did so in single minded fashion.
Considering that there were only around 20 men like bowyark in the country, their activities had an astounding impact on the british drug scene. Between 1974 an 1978, the amount of herbal cannabis seized in the countryaveraged around 2500 kg each year. In 1979, the amount more than doubled to 6445. in 1980 it increased threefold to 18419.
Custom officials agree that most, if ot all of this growth can be attributed to Jamaican trafficking operations in london and Birmingham.
saying all of that i still have the opinion that he is the greatest deejay. his soundsystem work was supposedly legendary and his records are second to none. 'kunte kinte roots' and 'girls fiesta' really deserve a reissue.