The Yardies, also known as the Jamaican posses, are Jamaican gangs or organized crime groups and gangsters of Jamaican origin, active both in Jamaica and in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. The name "Yardie" comes from the Jamaican Patois slang word "yard", meaning "home", but "Yardie" can also refer to criminals and gang members originating from the "government yards" (public housing) of Jamaica. Overcrowding, poverty, squatting, and homelessness in the "yards" of Kingston during the 1950s led to a rise in crime, drug abuse, and violence in the "yards", while local politicians bought and sold patronage within the community and paid gangs and violent political supporters to intimidate voters and threaten, assault, or kill political opponents. For instance, Lester Lloyd Coke, the boss of Tivoli in Kingston, gathered votes for Tivoli's JLP MP (and Prime Minister of Jamaica) Edward Seaga, a right-wing politician who was backed by the CIA. CIA money was used to buy guns which were distributed to party activists in the ghettoes. Meanwhile, PNP leader Michael Manley also had ghetto power bases, and the fervor of the support for the two parties created the greatest ideological gulf in Jamaican history, with Cuban guns and money being channeled to the PNP-affiliated gangs. During the 1980 election, Kingston erupted in an orgy of violence between the CIA-backed, pro-JLP gangs and the Cuban-backed, pro-PNP gangs, and at least 800 people were killed as the parties battled for votes. Many of the surviving gunmen went on to become Yardies. In ghettoes like Tivoli, Yardies were seen by many locals as community protectors or party activists. Inner-city Jamaican immigration to the United Kingdom during the 1980s led to the rise of gang violence and behavior, notably in their infamous grounds of Brixton, Harlesden, Hackney, Tottenham, Peckham, Shepherd's Bush, and Notting Hill; the Yardies also trafficked drugs into Aberdeenshire in Scotland and South Wales. The Yardies are involved in gun crime and drug trafficking (notably marijuana and crack cocaine), mostly in London, but also to a lesser extent in Bristol, Birmingham, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and Nottingham.