HISTORIC

Ex-Heavyweight Boxer Charged After Feds Seize Cocaine Haul Worth $1 Billion

Goran Gogic has been accused of using commercial shipping containers to transport one of the largest hauls seized in American history.

After being arrested at Miami International Airport on Sunday night, a one-time heavyweight boxer has been charged by the Department of Justice with attempting to smuggle 22 tons of cocaine—a quantity worth more than $1 billion—through the United States. Goran Gogic, a 43-year-old citizen of Montenegro, was called a “major drug trafficker” at the head of a “criminal network” in a Monday press release, which included details of what is one of the largest cocaine seizures in U.S. history, according to Reuters. The 19,930 kilograms of cocaine were pulled off of three commercial cargo ships in 2019, with prosecutors alleging that Gogic had masterminded the effort to traffic them from Columbia to Europe using American ports. His crews worked under the cover of night with cranes and nets to hoist the cocaine aboard the massive ships, prosecutors said, taking them off speedboats that drew up alongside them along their routes. Gogic was hit with one count of conspiracy and three counts of violating the federal Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act. Each charge carries a mandatory minimum of a decade behind bars and possible life sentence.