Goran Gogic, Ex-Heavyweight Boxer, Is Accused Of Trafficking Cocaine Worth $1 Billion
An ex-professional boxer has been charged with more than $1 billion in criminal offenses. According to the Department of Justice, Goran Gogic, 43, was arrested as he attempted to board a flight to Zurich, Switzerland, Sunday night at Miami International Airport. According to court documents, he is accused of overseeing cocaine shipments from South America to Europe that passed through ports in the United States. In a press release, the DOJ said in 2019 that the government intercepted three of those shipments in different ports. During a memorandum from the U.S. prosecutors, the shipment intercepted at the Port of Philadelphia on June 19, 2019 contained 17,956 kilograms of cocaine worth more than $1 billion, making it one of the largest cocaine seizures in the history of the nation. There were also several arrests and prosecutions for the crew members of the vessel. The ships would be loaded with cocaine at night near the ports where they were docked. The shipments were hidden in shipping containers by crewmembers who hoisted them up from speedboats, according to the news release. The indictment states that Gogic was present during the loading process of each shipment.
The prosecution claims that Gogic coordinated with all parts of the smuggling operation, including crews aboard commercial cargo ships, Colombian cocaine traffickers, speed boat workers who loaded drugs onto ships, and dock workers in Europe who received and unloaded the drugs. As the DOJ noted in its news release, “this complex operation required access to all ships’ crews, routes, manifests, real-time positioning, and geolocation data as well as a thorough understanding of what legitimate cargo was available in each container.” Peru, Panama, the Netherlands, and other countries also seized cocaine connected to Gogic’s scheme, the DOJ reported. Lawrence Hashish, Gogic’s lawyer, said Tuesday that the arrest came as a surprise, though he could not comment yet on the case’s facts. It is alleged that Gogic had conspired to violate the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act, as well as three counts of violating the same act. He faces a minimum sentence of 10 years and a maximum sentence of life, according to the Department of Justice. A detention hearing is scheduled for Nov. 7 for Hashish. He is in custody. BoxRec reports Goric had a record of 21-4 during his career as a professional boxer, most of which were in Germany.