Three Men Arrested for Bribery Attempt in Drug Trafficking Trial
In an unexpected turn of events, three individuals were arrested on Monday for allegedly attempting to bribe a juror in the drug trial of Goran Gogic, a former heavyweight boxer. The bribery attempt, which involved a sum of up to $100,000 in cash, led Judge Joan Azrack to abruptly dismiss the jury before opening statements began.
John Marzulli, a spokesman for federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, reported that an anonymous jury will be selected when Gogic’s trial resumes in a month. Judge Azrack scheduled a conference for December 17.
Gogic, originally from Montenegro, was scheduled to stand trial for allegedly conspiring to smuggle 20 tons of cocaine into Europe from Colombia via U.S. ports using commercial cargo ships. He has pleaded not guilty. His lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to U.S. Assistant Attorney Francisco Navarro, the three arrested individuals approached a juror and offered to pay $100,000 for a not guilty verdict. The prosecutor suggested that the men may have obtained a copy of the jury list or information about the jury from “individuals related to this trial”.
Gogic’s lawyer, Joseph Corozzo, informed the judge that he told the former boxer that the trial would not continue on Monday.
Mustafa Fteja, one of the accused, was released on a $150,000 bail after a court hearing on Tuesday. The other two, Valmir Krasniqi and Afrim Kupa, were jailed pending further proceedings. Fteja, Krasniqi, and Kupa were not required to plead during their initial court appearances.
Authorities have described Gogic as a “major drug trafficker” who operated on a “massive scale”.
Gogic, who was a heavyweight boxer, competed professionally in Germany from 2001 to 2012, with a record of 21-4-2. He was 6 feet 5 inches tall and weighed between 227 and 250 pounds.
In a criminal complaint filed in Brooklyn federal court, an FBI agent wrote that the bribery scheme unfolded between Thursday and Sunday.
According to court documents, one of the defendants, Mustafa Fteja, already knew a member of the jury, described in the complaint as “John Doe #1”, and called him several times by phone on the Thursday before the jury agreed to meet with him in Staten Island.
During the meeting, Fteja told the jury that associates in the Bronx were willing to pay him to issue a not guilty verdict, according to the complaint.
Two days later, Fteja told the jury during a second meeting that they were willing to pay him between $50,000 and $100,000 to corrupt the trial, according to the complaint.
According to the complaint, investigators obtained several recorded conversations of the accused planning the jury corruption plot, speaking in Albanian and English.
In his trial, Gogic is accused of violating and conspiring to violate the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act. If convicted, he faces a sentence of 10 years to life in prison.
According to prosecutors, Gogic and his accomplices worked with crew members of the ships to smuggle cocaine in shipping containers, hoisting loads of the drug from speedboats that approached the cargo ships along their route, including near ports in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.
Prosecutors reported that U.S. law enforcement agents intercepted three shipments, including 1,437 kilograms of cocaine aboard the MSC Carlotta at the Port of New York and New Jersey in February 2019, and 17,956 kilograms of cocaine, with a street value of over $1 billion, aboard the MSC Gayane at the Port of Philadelphia in June 2019.
The seizure in Philadelphia was one of the largest cocaine seizures in U.S. history, according to prosecutors.
