Former boxer arrested in Miami in connection with massive cocaine case in New York

A former European heavyweight boxer was arrested at Miami International Airport on charges linked to a massive New York drug-trafficking case involving seizures of 22 tons of cocaine worth more than $1 billion — among the largest cocaine confiscations in American history, according to U.S. authorities.

Goran Gogic, 43, of Montenegro was taken into custody at MIA Sunday night by federal agents while trying to board a flight to Zurich. He was charged in a federal grand jury indictment with one count of conspiring with others to possess and distribute cocaine found on vessels in the United States and with three counts of violating the federal Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act. Each count carries a mandatory minimum 10-year prison term and possible life sentence.

On Monday, Gogic had his first federal court appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisette Reid in Miami federal court, and he will have a hearing next Monday on his detention and removal to Brooklyn, New York.

“These charges come as a complete surprise to him,” Gogic’s defense attorney Lawrence Hashish told the Miami Herald Monday. “He maintains his innocence and plans to fight these charges.”

Hashish said that Gogic is a boxing promoter who traveled from Europe to Newark, N.J., and then to Puerto Rico for a boxing convention. On his return trip, he visited Miami before taking a flight to Europe on Sunday night. But before departure, he was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents, based on the indictment returned by the Brooklyn federal grand jury.

According to online records, Gogic was a boxer from 2001 to 2012, winning 21 bouts and losing four with two draws.

Federal authorities said that after his retirement from boxing, Gogic became involved in an international drug-trafficking organization.

“The arrest and indictment of Gogic ... is a resounding victory for law enforcement,” Breon Peace, the U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement issued Monday.

The charges stem from the seizures of 19,930 kilograms (22 tons) of cocaine from three commercial cargo ships in 2019, including 17,956 kilograms (19.8 tons) from the MSC Gayane while it was docked at Philadelphia’s Packer Avenue Marine Terminal.

Peace and other federal authorities said in a news release that Gogic oversaw the logistics of cocaine shipments from Colombia through American ports to Europe, coordinating with crew members, traffickers and dockworkers from his base in the Balkans.

The global operation required knowledge of each ship’s crew, route and location data, authorities said. Crew members used cranes and nets at night to hoist drugs onto cargo ships from approaching speedboats along the ships’ routes, they said. The drugs were hidden in commercial shipping containers.

At least eight MSC Gayane crew members have pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges, according to authorities.

“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,” Ivan Arvelo, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New York, said in a statement.

“[Gojic’s] arrest sends a message to narcotraffickers worldwide that they are not free to hijack international maritime commerce with impunity,” Arvelo said.