More than 60 people have been killed since soldiers stormed Christopher "Dudus" Coke's bastion in the barricaded Kingston slum of Tivoli Gardens in an unsuccessful bid to arrest him for extradition to the United States.

Coke, 41, the son of one of Jamaica's most influential gang leaders, is wanted by the U.S. government on drug and gun-trafficking charges.

Tivoli Gardens, Jamaica's first public housing project, is in a part of West Kingston represented in Parliament by Golding, who has long resisted the extradition request for Coke. Even though Prime Minister Bruce Golding ordered Coke's arrest on May 17, many news outlets have named him a "known criminal affiliate" of the fugitive drugs baron.

In a statement today, Golding's office dismissed an ABC News report that quoted "official US accounts" as saying that the JLP was voted into power through "Coke's murderous and strong-arm tactics." A similar statement was printed by The Independent, a UK newspaper.

Golding's office discounted the accusations, saying, "He said both publications, by seeking to link him personally with the alleged drug kingpin, were clearly part of a conspiracy to undermine the duly elected government of Jamaica."