Three men arrested for jury bribery 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 a former heavyweight boxer in Brooklyn. Judge Joan Azrack was forced to dismiss the jury just before opening statements were to begin.
According to Brooklyn federal prosecutors’ spokesman John Marzulli, an anonymous jury will be selected when Goran Gogic’s trial resumes, scheduled for a month from now. Judge Azrack scheduled a conference for December 17.
Gogic, originally from Montenegro, is facing charges for conspiring to smuggle 20 tons of cocaine into Europe from Colombia, using commercial cargo ships that passed through US ports. The former boxer has pleaded not guilty. His lawyer did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The three individuals were arrested after they approached a juror and offered him up to $100,000 to issue a not guilty verdict, according to Assistant Prosecutor Francisco Navarro, who informed Judge Azrack.
The prosecutor suggested that the men might have obtained information from the jury from “individuals related to this trial”.
Gogic’s lawyer, Joseph Corozzo, informed the judge that he had notified the former boxer that the trial would not proceed on Monday.
One of the defendants, Mustafa Fteja, was released on a $150,000 bail after a court hearing on Tuesday. The other two, Valmir Krasniqi and Afrim Kupa, remain in pre-trial detention pending further proceedings.
Neither Fteja, Krasniqi nor Kupa had to plead guilty during their initial appearances before the court. Messages were left for their lawyers seeking comment.
Authorities have described Gogic as a “major drug trafficker” who operated on a “large scale”.
Gogic, who was a heavyweight boxer, competed professionally in Germany between 2001 and 2012, with a record of 21 wins, 4 losses and 2 draws, according to the specialized website Sport & Note. He was 1.96 meters tall and weighed between 103 and 113 kilos.
In a criminal complaint filed in Brooklyn federal court, an FBI agent recounted that the bribery scheme unfolded between Thursday and Sunday.
According to court documents, Mustafa Fteja, one of the accused men, already knew a juror identified as “John Doe #1” and called him several times by phone on Thursday, before the juror agreed to meet with him in Staten Island.
In the meeting, Fteja told the jury that people 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 would be offered 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 bribery of the jury, where they spoke in Albanian and English.
In his trial, Gogic faces charges for violating and conspiring to violate the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act. If found guilty, he could be sentenced to between 10 years in prison and life imprisonment.
According to prosecutors, Gogic and his accomplices collaborated with crew members of the ships to smuggle cocaine in shipping containers, loading the drug from speedboats that approached cargo ships offshore, 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 one billion dollars, 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.
