Photo by Friedemann Vogel/Bongarts/Getty Images
Former heavyweight boxer Goran Gogic faces charges of trafficking over $1 billion worth of cocaine. With a “B.”
Last we saw heavyweight boxer Goran Gogic, pictured above during his 2006 loss to Pedro Carrion, he was walking away from the sport despite winning his last professional bout, when he knocked out Liviu Ungureanu in July of 2012.
It has been a while since we have heard from him, to say the least.
Now, however, Gogic is back in the news, and for all the wrong reasons.
The former boxer was arrested on Sunday night at Miami International Airport while trying to board a flight to Switzerland. The charges? According to a press release from the United States Department of Justice, Gogic faces charges of “maritime narcotrafficking.” Simply put, according to the DOJ Gogic is alleged to have used commercial container ships to transport over $1 billion worth of cocaine from Columbia to Europe, via the United States.
According to the DOJ, over 20 tons — yes 20 tons — of cocaine were seized between May of 2018 and July of 2019. For example, in February of 2019 1,437 kilograms of cocaine were seized from the MSC Carlotta at the Port of New York and New Jersey. In June of 2019, approximately 17,956 kilograms — 39,586 pounds — was seized from the MSC Gayane at the Port of Philadelphia. This seizure was one of the largest in United States history.
Thanks to this handy website themeasureofthings.com, we know that 39,000 pounds is about two TIMES as heavy as a Tyrannosaurus Rex. it is also one-tenth as heavy as the Statue of Liberty, and one-fourth as heavy as the Space Shuttle.
Here is how the conspiracy worked, according to the DOJ:
Members of the conspiracy loaded the commercial cargo ships at night near the coast and ports, working with crewmembers who would hoist loads of cocaine from speedboats that approached the ships at multiple points along their route. To physically load the cocaine aboard, they used the ship’s cranes as well as nets. Once the cocaine was onboard, the crewmembers would hide it within specific shipping containers that they knew had sufficient room to conceal the large quantities of cocaine and for which they had duplicate counterfeit seals. They selected the specific containers to be used to conceal the cocaine based, in part, on the containers’ location and orientation, and route and destination on board the vessel. This complex operation relied on having to access to each ship’s crew, route, manifest, real-time positioning and geolocation data and a knowledge of what legitimate cargo is contained in each container. The conspiracy used a different set of workers with access to the ports in Europe to clandestinely access and remove the cocaine from the shipping containers upon their arrival.
Breon Peace, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said this regarding Gogic’s involvement: “Gogic, as alleged, is a major drug trafficker who, along with his criminal associates, is responsible for overseeing long-range narcotics transportation on container ships as well as the wholesale distribution of cocaine throughout Europe.”
Wayne A. Jacobs, the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office’s Criminal/Cyber division, added this regarding the former boxer: “Gogic allegedly conspired with drug suppliers, ships’ crewmembers, and port workers to traffic massive quantities of cocaine through the U.S. to Europe via commercial cargo ships.”
Gogic appeared in a United States Magistrate Court on Tuesday, and is facing three counts of violating the federal Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act, and one count of conspiracy to violate the same Act. Each count, according to the DOJ, carries at least a ten-year prison term and a possible life sentence.
As noted by the DOJ, “The charges in the indictment are allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.”
