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 boxer. The bribery attempt, which involved a sum of up to $100,000 in cash, led Judge Joan Azrack to abruptly dismiss the jury just before opening statements were to begin.
According to John Marzulli, a spokesman for federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, 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 metric 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.
The three individuals were arrested after approaching a jury and offering them $100,000 in exchange for a not guilty verdict, according to U.S. Assistant Attorney Francisco Navarro, who informed Judge Azrack.
The prosecutor indicated that the three men may have obtained a copy of the jury list or information about the jury from “individuals connected to this trial”.
Gogic’s lawyer, Joseph Corozzo, informed the judge that he told the former boxer that the trial would not take place on Monday.
One of the defendants, Mustafa Fteja, was released on $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. Messages seeking comment were left for their lawyers.
The authorities have described Gogic as a “major drug trafficker” and stated that he operated on a “gigantic scale”.
Gogic, a former heavyweight boxer, competed professionally in Germany from 2001 to 2012, with a record of 21-4-2, according to the boxing website Sport & Note. 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 men charged in the plot, Mustafa Fteja, already knew a juror described in the complaint as “John Doe #1” and called him several times by cell phone on the Thursday before the juror agreed to meet with him in Staten Island.
During the meeting, which took place on Thursday, Fteja told the jury that his 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, while the men spoke 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 said U.S. law enforcement agents intercepted three shipments, including 1,437 kilograms (3,168 pounds) of cocaine aboard the MSC Carlotta at the Port of New York and New Jersey in February 2019 and 17,956 kilograms (39,586 pounds) of cocaine, worth more than $1 billion, aboard the MSC Gayane at the Port of Philadelphia in June 2019.
The Philadelphia seizure was one of the largest cocaine seizures in United States history, according to prosecutors.
