Police sources say rumours circulating about the death of Vivian Blake, reputed leader of the notorious Shower Posse gang, were just that.

Yesterday, rumours suddenly began to surface that Blake, 53, was gunned down somewhere in Half-Way Tree, St Andrew.

Subsequent checks by THE STAR with a number of police sources revealed the reports were rumours.

"I'm not saying that isn't so but not in this division," Deputy Superintendent Michael Phipps, crime chief for the St Andrew Central police, said.

"Yes, I've heard the rumour but as far as I know that did not happen," head of the Criminal Investi-gation Branch, Assistant Commissioner Les Green, later added.

fled to jamaica

Blake returned to Jamaica on January 29 after being sentenced to 28 years in Federal prison in June 2000 in a Miami Federal Court. He had been indicted there 12 years earlier but American authorities said he fled to Jamaica, by boarding a cruise ship in Miami, where he remained free until his arrest in 1994.