Boxer Goran Gogić's 20 Ton Cocaine Trafficking Case Adjourned Due to Juror Bribery Attempt

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The Brooklyn federal trial revolving around one of the biggest cocaine busts in US history will reconvene in 30 days, with an anonymous and partially sequestered jury, Judge Azrack ruled.

Three men were planning to give a juror $100,000 to persuade a juror to acquit a former boxer accused of trafficking massive amounts of cocaine, according to federal court documents. The 20-ton shipment of cocaine was seized by US Customs in 2019, the largest single seizure in the agency's history.

The New York City trial for former heavyweight Goran Gogić of Montenegro, who is charged with violating federal maritime drug law by smuggling cocaine on container ships, was scheduled to start Monday.

Gogic, of Montenegro, was set to stand trial for allegedly conspiring to smuggle 20 tons (18.1 metric tons) of cocaine to Europe from Colombia through U.S. ports using commercial cargo ships. Federal agents had arrested Gogic while he was boarding a flight from Miami to Zurich after traveling to Puerto Rico for a boxing convention.

He has pleaded not guilty. His lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Instead, the court was adjourned and the jury was dismissed, according to court documents.

The judge presiding over the trial in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, Joan M. Azrack, scheduled a status hearing for Dec. 17, according to a court document filed Monday.

Jury Bribery Attempt

On Sunday, a complaint including an FBI agent's claims against the trio in the alleged bribe scheme was filed in the same court. The FBI agent wrote that the bribery scheme unfolded between Thursday and Sunday.

According to the court papers, Fteja already knew a juror described in the complaint as “John Doe #1” and called him multiple times on his cellphone Thursday before the juror agreed to meet him on Staten Island.

During the meeting, which took place Thursday, Fteja told the juror that associates in the Bronx were willing to pay him to return a not guilty verdict, the complaint said.

It alleges Mustafa Fteja, Valmir Krasniqi and Afrim Kupa gathered that day at Krasniqi's home in Staten Island, where they were recorded discussing an alleged plot to pay a juror "known" to Fteja to vote not guilty in exchange for $100,000 cash.

The complaint quotes Fteja asking "How they gonna pay" the juror, who is not named in the filing.

Kupa responded by saying only, "Cash," according to the complaint. He later says, "One, one hundred thousand," the document states.

The FBI agent, who said in the complaint that he is an expert in Balkan and Italian organized crime, said the trio spoke both in Albanian and English and that an FBI linguist translated some of the conversation.

According to The Associated Press, Fteja was released on a $150,000 bond after a court hearing; Krasniqi and Kupa were detained. All three are listed as living in Staten Island. A woman answering a phone number listed for Fteja said that he was not available and that she could not leave a message. A message left on a line listed for Krasniqi was not immediately returned late Monday. A phone number listed for Kupa was not active.

Mustafa Fteja

According to the New York Post, Mustafa Fteja had previously brought a lawsuit against Facebook in 2011 for terminating his account, asking for half a million dollars in damages. In 2020, following a lawsuit filed against a New York steak restaurant and "The Salt Bae," a $300,000 settlement was reached.

In a 2020 ruling that kept Afrim Kupa behind bars for a 2013 drug conviction despite his request for health-related release, U.S. District Judge Edward R. Korman said he had an extensive criminal record and was associated with the Gambino crime family.

He at one point worked with Miami "club king" and Mafia turncoat Chris Paciello, the source said, and his criminal record dates back to at least 1992, when he was busted on arson and reckless endangerment charges.

In 2011 Kupa and a crew of burglars used a blowtorch to cut through the roof of the Astoria Federal Savings Bank in Queens, New York. He was later arrested while wearing an ankle monitor after a 46 month prison term by the DEA with a kilogram of cocaine as part of the large drug trafficking indictment against the Gambino family and Albanian mobsters.

Kupa "supplied multi-kilogram amounts of cocaine and marijuana" to a member of the organization, Korman said of the 2013 conviction alongside several Gambino family capos and soldiers. “This defendant is both connected to Balkan organized crime and Italian organized crime,” said Assistant District Attorney Emily Dean.

Valmir Krasniqi, 35, a Kosovo national who has lived in the US for 13 years, also has ties to Albanian organized crime, prosecutors contended.

He works as a manager for Positano, a Bay Ridge restaurant that’s a frequent mob hangout, Dean said. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he provided an interview to New York Post regarding the restaurant. "We have heaters, lights, fresh flowers, palm trees," general manager Valmir Krasniqi said of the southern Italian hotspot. “We’re just trying to make it a normal and nice experience while still keeping a traditional Italian vibe. We have imported rugs, we have twinkle lights to kind of get people in the holiday spirit,” the manager said.

Prosecutors alleged that Krasniqi was caught on a tape recording saying, “It’s done” – a statement they linked to the bribe deal. But Krasniqi’s attorney, Mathew Mari, denied his client’s involvement in the whole scheme and argued he got put in that place after “someone else asked him to have the meeting at his house.”

Goran Gogic fought professionally in Germany from 2001 to 2012, compiling a 21-4-2 record, according to boxing website Sport & Note. He was listed as 6-foot-5 (1.96 meters) and weighed in at anywhere from 227 pounds (103 kilograms) to 250 pounds (113 kilograms).

Gogić's lead defense counsel, Joseph Corozzo, did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Monday. Corozzo is the son of and an attorney for former Gambino family Consigliere Joseph "Jo Jo" Corozzo, who's brother "Little Nick," an one time rival turned Gotti loyalist helped run the New York based crime family during the 1990s.

"Jo Jo" Corozzo Sr. and John Gotti Sr.

In the same Brooklyn courthouse in 1992, a juror was convicted of selling his vote for $60,000 in the 1987 racketeering trial of John Gotti, the former boss of the Gambino crime family. The juror, George H. Pape, told a friend that he was going to take a bribe in exchange for bringing about an acquittal.

Gotti personally authorized the payment and was acquitted, bolstering his legend and the moniker of “Teflon Don.” It was not clear if Mr. Pape ever received the money. Sammy "The Bull" Gravano testified that the juror bribery was handled by Boško Radonjić, known as "Yugo" who headed up the Westies street gang in Hell's Kitchen, Manhatten, New York at the time.

Five years later, with an anonymized, sequestered jury ordered by Judge Leo Glasser, Gotti was convicted of murder and racketeering.

Record Cocaine Seizure in Philadelphia

Gogić, who is charged with three counts of violating the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act, pleaded not guilty.

Federal prosecutors allege he masterminded the logistics of stashing large amounts of Colombian cocaine on container ships bound for wholesale distributors in Europe. The shipment was allegedly coordinated by the European Super Cartel that included Daniel Kinahan, Edin “Tito” Gacanin, Raffaele Imperiale and others.

The office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York alleged in a statement in 2022 that Gogić was behind shipments of 20 tons of cocaine that he tried to move through U.S. ports in 2018 and 2019 before they were intercepted.

Prosecutors allege that Gogić conspired with others to load commercial container ships off Latin American coastlines with cocaine via offshore speed boats and the use of hoists and that crew members on the operations would put the drugs in containers with extra room and then use "duplicate counterfeit seals" to throw off inspectors.

Between February and June 2019, federal agents recovered nearly 20,000 kilograms of cocaine from three shipments to the ports of New York and New Jersey and Philadelphia. The bulk of it, nearly 18,000 kilograms, came from the last of those seizures in Philadelphia.

On June 19, 2019, a takedown of about 17,956 kilos of cocaine from a Liberia-flagged container ship at the Port of Philadelphia was said to be the largest cocaine seizure in the 230-year history of U.S. Customs, according to Customs and Border Protection said in a statement at the time.

CBP, HSI, and U.S. Coast Guard authorities detected anomalies while examining seven shipping containers aboard the MSC Gayane, a 1,030-foot Liberian-flagged container ship. The boarding team escorted the ship to its berth in South Philadelphia and continued its inspection.

The containers were unloaded from the vessel Monday afternoon and CBP confirmed the presence of anomalies. CBP escorted the containers to CBP’s Centralized Examination Station, where CBP officers offloaded truckloads of packages from the containers.

The contents of the shipping containers included wine, coated paperboard, vegetable extracts, and dried nuts from Chile, carbon black from Colombia, and scrap metal batteries from United Arab Emirates. They were destined to Ireland, Nigeria, South Africa, Lebanon, India, and Haiti.

The MSC Gayane made port calls to Chile, Peru, Panama and the Bahamas before arriving in Philadelphia.

A combined 15,582 bricks, totaling more than 35,000 pounds of a white, powdery substance, which tested positive for cocaine. CBP seized the cocaine as well as $56,330 found on the vessel believed to be proceeds from illegal activity. A multi-agency team continues to inspect containers aboard the vessel.

Authorities also seized cocaine alleged to be under Gogić's direction in Panama, Peru and the Netherlands, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York said in 2022.

Source NBC, CBP, Vijesti, Justia