A man has admitted to attempting to bribe a juror with up to $100,000 during the federal drug trafficking trial of former heavyweight boxer Goran Gogic, authorities said Thursday. Mustafa Fteja entered a guilty plea to obstructing justice in Brooklyn federal court, agreeing to a prison term of approximately five to six years. He is scheduled to be formally sentenced on June 23.
Fteja was one of three men charged last November in a scheme to manipulate the outcome of Gogic’s trial. Prosecutors said the plan involved contacting a juror, referred to in court filings as “John Doe #1,” and offering large sums of money in exchange for a not guilty verdict. Over a three-day period, Fteja allegedly met the juror on Staten Island multiple times, claiming that associates in the Bronx would pay between $50,000 and $100,000 if he complied. Federal investigators say the plot was recorded in several conversations, with the defendants speaking in both Albanian and English.
Goran Gogic, a 6-foot-5, 250-pound former professional boxer from Montenegro, was arrested in 2022 at Miami International Airport. He has pleaded not guilty to charges under the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act. These charges stem from three major cocaine seizures, including a record haul of 19.8 tons taken from a cargo ship at Philadelphia’s Packer Avenue Marine Terminal in 2019. Prosecutors allege Gogic orchestrated a sophisticated international drug trafficking network, moving more than $1 billion worth of cocaine from Colombia to Europe. The operation reportedly involved careful coordination with ship crews, Colombian suppliers, and European dockworkers to avoid detection.
Gogic’s boxing career lasted from 2001 to 2012, during which he won 21 fights and lost four. While the bribery plot does not directly relate to his past boxing career, it has intensified public interest in the trial and highlighted the lengths to which organized crime figures may go to influence the judicial process. Fteja has remained free on $150,000 bail since his arrest.
Legal experts note that attempting to influence a juror in a federal trial is a serious offense, carrying severe penalties. Fteja’s guilty plea could streamline the prosecution of the other defendants implicated in the scheme. If convicted on the drug trafficking charges, Gogic faces a potential sentence ranging from 10 years to life in prison.
Authorities say the case underscores the ongoing difficulties law enforcement faces in tackling global organized crime networks, which increasingly rely on complex logistics, financial schemes, and corruption to move illegal narcotics across borders. Officials continue to urge anyone with information to come forward to assist in ongoing investigations, warning that similar schemes remain a threat to the integrity of the judicial process.
The trial of Gogic and his co-defendants is expected to draw significant attention given the massive scale of the cocaine seizures and the extraordinary allegations of juror tampering. Federal prosecutors have described the case as an example of the sophisticated methods criminal networks employ to evade detection and influence outcomes, emphasizing the need for vigilance in both legal proceedings and law enforcement operations.
