The former heavyweight boxer accused of coordinating drug shipments on container vessels has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
Goran Gogic pleaded not guilty to all counts in a US federal court in New York, court records show.
As TradeWinds has reported, the Montenegro citizen is facing allegations that he helped move 19.9 tonnes of cocaine on three vessels in the fleet of MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company.
He faces three counts of violating the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act, as well as one charge of conspiracy to break the narcotics law.
If he is convicted, the charges against Gogic carry a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years imprisonment and up to a life sentence.
Speaking through a Serbian interpreter, he entered his not guilty plea on 18 January before magistrate Judge Vera Scanlon of the Brooklyn-based US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, court records show.
He remains in a federal detention facility, although the judge left the door open to discussing bail further down the road.
Federal agents arrested Gogic, 43, on 30 October while he was boarding a flight from Miami to Zurich.
Prosecutors alleged that he coordinated with crew members on commercial ships used to move the drugs, with narcotraffickers in Colombia who sourced the cocaine, with speedboat operators who delivered it to container ships off South America and with dockworkers at European ports who were lined up to receive the cocaine once it arrived at its destination.
US authorities claimed he was no low-level drug runner in the alleged conspiracy but a “high-level narcotrafficker” for Balkan cartels.
