Goran Gogić, 43, was arrested on Sunday night as he attempted to board an international flight from Miami International Airport.
Prosecutors in a New York federal court charged Gogić with one count of conspiracy and three counts of violating the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act. If convicted, he faces a minimum sentence of 10 years.
According to court documents, the former boxer-turned-narco trafficker conspired with others between May 2018 and July 2019 to distribute massive amounts of cocaine via commercial cargo ships. He sourced the drug, headed to Europe via U.S. ports, from Colombia.
“Gogić allegedly conspired with drug suppliers, ships' crew members, and port workers to traffic massive quantities of cocaine through the U.S. to Europe via commercial cargo ships," said Wayne A. Jacobs, Special Agent from the FBI Washington Field Office.
The complex delivery across the Atlantic relied on the crewmembers’ cooperation, as well as access to the vessel’s crew, route, and geolocation data.
Gogić’s efforts were halted, however, when a series of seizures in 2019 intercepted 22 tons of cocaine from three commercial cargo ships docked at Philadelphia, New Jersey, and New York ports.
This includes the almost 20 tons of cocaine seized from the MSC Gayane container ship, worth over $1 billion— constituting one of the largest cocaine seizures ever in the U.S.
The two other vessels where seizures took place are MSC Carlotta and MSC Desiree.
Law enforcement officers also seized significant amounts of cocaine related to this scheme at ports in Panama, Peru, the Netherlands, and other countries.
