Three Arrested for Bribery Attempt in Ex-Boxer’s 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 champion. The corruption attempt involved a sum of up to $100,000 in cash.
The judge in charge of the case decided to dismiss the original jury just before the opening statements began.
According to John Marzulli, a spokesman for the federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, a new anonymous jury will be selected for Gogic’s trial, which will resume in a month.
Gogic, from Montenegro, is accused of conspiring to smuggle 20 tons of cocaine into Europe from Colombia, using commercial cargo ships that passed through U.S. ports. He has pleaded not guilty. His lawyer did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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 between 2001 and 2012, accumulating a record of 21-4-2. He was 6 feet 5 inches tall and weighed between 227 and 250 pounds.
A criminal complaint filed in Brooklyn federal court by an FBI agent details how the bribery scheme unfolded between Thursday and Sunday.
According to court documents, one of the men accused in the plot, Mustafa Fteja, already knew a member of the jury identified as “John Doe #1”. Fteja called him several times by phone on 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 informed the jury, in a second meeting, that they were willing to pay him between $50,000 and $100,000 to corrupt the trial, according to the complaint.
It has not been specified who will represent Fteja and the other two defendants in the jury tampering scheme when they appear in court on Monday.
According to the complaint, investigators obtained several recordings of conversations of the accused planning the jury corruption plot, speaking in Albanian and English.
In his trial, Gogic faces charges for violating and conspiring to violate the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act. If convicted, he could face a sentence of 10 years to life in prison.
Prosecutors argue that Gogic and his accomplices worked with crew members of the ships to smuggle cocaine in shipping containers, loading the drug from speedboats that approached the cargo ships along their route, including near ports in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.
U.S. law enforcement agents intercepted three shipments, according to prosecutors, 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.
