Feds charge ex-boxer Goran Gogic with trafficking $1B worth of cocaine

A former heavyweight boxer from Montenegro was charged with trafficking 22 tons of cocaine worth more than $1 billion from Columbia to Europe via the US, federal prosecutors said this week.

Goran Gogic, 43, was arrested Sunday night while trying to board a flight to Zurich from Miami International Airport, after being indicted by a grand jury in New York, according to the Department of Justice.

The charges against the ex-bruiser stem from the seizures of 22 tons of cocaine found on three commercial cargo ships in February, March and June of 2019.

In the June 19, 2019 raid, law enforcement found 19.8 tons of the drugs on the MSC Gayane while it was docked at Philadelphia’s Packer Avenue Marine Terminal — marking one of the largest seizures of cocaine in US history, according to the feds.

Prosecutors said between May 2018 and July 2019, the conspirators transported coke to Europe from Colombia through American ports, using cranes and nets at night to hoist drugs onto cargo ships from approaching speedboats along the ships’ routes.

The complex operation required knowledge of each ship’s crew, route and location data, and that there was room to store drugs in shipping containers that were already aboard, prosecutors said.

The drug trafficking ring allegedly used a different set of workers with access to the ports in Europe to secretly the cocaine from the shipping containers upon their arrival. 

According to court papers, Gogic oversaw the logistics, coordinating with crew members, Colombian traffickers and European dockworkers to benefit himself and his Balkan-based cartels.

Gogic — whose pro-boxing career spanned more than a decade — was charged with three counts of violating the federal Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act and one count of conspiracy.

Each count carries a mandatory minimum 10-year prison term and possible life sentence.

Gogic, who was described as a “sophisticated drug trafficker” by NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell, was jailed after briefly appearing in court in Miami on Monday, his lawyer said. Another detention hearing is scheduled for Nov. 7.

“These charges came as a surprise to him. He maintains his innocence and had come to the U.S for a boxing convention in Puerto Rico,” attorney Lawrence Hashish said in a statement.

In a statement, US Attorney Breon Peace in Brooklyn called Gogic’s arrest and indictment “a resounding victory for law enforcement.”

Lawrence Hashish, Gogic’s attorney, the lawyer for Gogic, said: “These charges came as a surprise to him. He maintains his innocence, and had come to the US for a boxing convention in Puerto Rico.”

At least eight Gayane crew members have pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges.

According to online records, Gogic, a native of Pljevlja, Montenegro, was a heavyweight boxer from 2001 to 2012, winning 21 bouts and losing four with two draws in 27 career matches.

With Post wires