NEW YORK (AP) — Three men were arrested Monday for allegedly offering to pay $100,000 in cash to a juror at the Brooklyn drug trial of former heavyweight boxer Goran Gogic, leading a federal judge to abruptly dismiss the jury just as it was about to hear opening statements.
An anonymous jury will be chosen when Gogic's trial resumes after a 30-day break, said John Marzulli, a spokesperson for federal prosecutors in Brooklyn. Judge Joan Azrack scheduled a Dec. 17 conference.
Gogic, of Montenegro, was set to stand trial for allegedly conspiring to smuggle 20 tons (18.1 metric tons) of cocaine to Europe from Colombia through U.S. ports using commercial cargo ships. He has pleaded not guilty. His lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Three individuals were arrested after they approached a juror and offered to pay $100,000 to return a not guilty verdict, Assistant U.S. Attorney Francisco Navarro told Azrack.
The three men may have obtained a copy of the jury list or jury information from “individuals connected to this trial,” the prosecutor said.
Gogic’s lawyer, Joseph Corozzo, told the judge that he informed the ex-fighter the trial would not proceed on Monday.
One of the men charged, Mustafa Fteja, was released on a $150,000 bond after a court hearing Tuesday. The two others, Valmir Krasniqi and Afrim Kupa, were jailed pending further proceedings.
Fteja, Krasniqi and Kupa were not required to enter pleas during their initial court appearances. Messages seeking comment were left for their lawyers.
Law enforcement officials have described Gogic as a “major drug trafficker” and said he operated on a “mammoth scale.”
Gogic fought professionally in Germany from 2001 to 2012, compiling a 21-4-2 record, according to boxing website Sport & Note. He was listed as 6-foot-5 (1.96 meters) and weighed in at anywhere from 227 pounds (103 kilograms) to 250 pounds (113 kilograms).
In a criminal complaint in Brooklyn federal court, an FBI agent wrote that the bribery scheme unfolded between Thursday and Sunday.
According to the court papers, Fteja already knew a juror described in the complaint as “John Doe #1” and called him multiple times on his cellphone Thursday before the juror agreed to meet him on Staten Island.
During the meeting, which took place Thursday, Fteja told the juror that associates in the Bronx were willing to pay him to return a not guilty verdict, the complaint said.
Two days later, Fteja told the juror during a second meeting that they were willing to pay him between $50,000 and $100,000 to corrupt the trial, the complaint said.
According to the complaint, investigators secured several recorded conversations of the defendants planning the juror corruption plot as the men spoke in Albanian and English. The court papers contained some quotes from the recorded conversations.
At his trial, Gogic is charged with violating and conspiring to violate the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act. If convicted, he faces a sentence of 10 years to life in prison.
According to prosecutors, Gogic and his co-conspirators worked with the ships’ crew members to smuggle cocaine in shipping containers, hoisting loads of the drug from speedboats that approached the cargo vessels along their route, including near ports in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.
Three shipments were intercepted by U.S. law enforcement agents, prosecutors said, including 1,437 kilograms (3,168 pounds) of cocaine aboard the MSC Carlotta at the Port of New York and New Jersey in February 2019 and 17,956 kilograms (39,586 pounds) of cocaine — with a street value of over $1 billion — aboard the MSC Gayane at the Port of Philadelphia in June 2019.
The Philadelphia bust was one of the largest cocaine seizures in U.S. history, prosecutors said.
FILE - The New York Police Department has extra security in place in front of the Brooklyn Federal Courthouse for the start of jury selection in the trial of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, Nov. 5, 2018, in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Voting was underway on Sunday in Myanmar in the final round of a three-stage general election, capping a nearly monthlong process that has already ensured the country’s military rulers and their allies will command a parliamentary majority to form a new government.
Critics say the polls are neither free nor fair, and are designed to legitimize the power of the military after it ousted the elected civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.
The army-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, or USDP, has already won most of the seats contested in the first two rounds of voting. Twenty-five percent of the seats in the upper and lower houses of the national Parliament are reserved for the military, guaranteeing it and its allies control of the legislature.
Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, who heads the current military government, is widely expected by both supporters and opponents to assume the presidency when the new Parliament meets.
The army's 2021 takeover triggered widespread opposition that dragged Myanmar into a civil war. Security concerns engendered by the fighting meant voting was not held in more than one-fifth of the country’s 330 townships, another reason the process has been described as neither free nor fair.
Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan on Tuesday said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, of which Myanmar is a member, did not send observers and would not certify the election, citing concerns over the lack of inclusive and free participation.
Min Aung Hlaing pushed back against critics of the polls on Sunday, declaring that “the people who live in Myanmar are the ones who vote. Not those from outside."
“We are not concerned whether this is recognized by foreign countries or not. We recognize the people’s vote. It should be like that,” he told journalists after inspecting a polling station in Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city.
Asked if he intended to take part in the new government, he declined to comment, noting the president would be selected when Parliament meets.
Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s 80-year-old former leader, and her party are not participating in the polls. She is serving a 27-year prison term on charges widely viewed as spurious and politically motivated. Her party, the National League for Democracy, won landslide victories in the 2020 and 2015 elections, but was forced to dissolve in 2023 after refusing to register under new military rules.
Other parties also refused to register or declined to run under conditions they deem unfair, while opposition groups called for a voter boycott.
A new Election Protection Law imposed harsh penalties for most public criticism of the polls, with the authorities charging more than 400 people recently for activities such as leafleting or online activity.
The previous two rounds of voting were disrupted by armed groups opposed to military rule carrying out attacks on polling stations and government buildings in several townships, killing at least two administrative officials, according to the military government.
Voting on Sunday began at 6 a.m. in 61 townships across six regions and three states, including many areas that have seen clashes in recent months.
At the polling station in Dagon township in Yangon, the country’s largest city, 86-year-old Soe Tint said he cast his ballot because he wants the country to be peaceful and develop “in all sectors, including education.”
At the same station, Lae Lae Yi, 62, was less hopeful.
“I’m not expecting anything at all, because there is no motivation,” she said.
The election is being held in three phases due to the armed conflict. The first two rounds took place on Dec. 28 and Jan. 11 in 202 of the country’s 330 townships. A total of 67 townships – mostly areas controlled by armed opposing groups – did not participate, reducing the original seats in the 664-member national parliament to 586.
Final results for all parliament seats are expected to be announced later this week. The military government has announced that Parliament will be convened in March, and the new government will take up its duties in April.
The party with a majority in the combined upper and lower houses of Parliament can select the new president, who in turn names a Cabinet and forms a new government.
More than 4,800 candidates from 57 political parties are competing for seats in national and regional legislatures, though only six are contesting nationwide. Seventeen other parties aside from the USDP have won a small number of seats in the legislature, ranging from one to 10.
The military government said there are more than 24 million eligible voters, about 35% fewer than in 2020. The turnout in the first two rounds of voting was between 50% and 60%, it announced.
Peck reported from Bangkok.
Ko Ko Gyi, chairman of the People's Party and leader of Myanmar's 1988 pro-democracy uprising, talks to journalists after casting his ballot at a polling station during the final round of general election Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, in Yangon, Myanmar. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)
Voters line up to cast ballots at a polling station during the final round of general election Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, in Yangon, Myanmar. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)
A official of the Union Election Commission prepares a voting booth at a polling station, one day ahead of the third phase of the general election, in Yangon, Myanmar, Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)
A voter casts her ballot at a polling station during the third phase of general election in Mandalay, central Myanmar, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)
An official of the Union Election Commission sets up an electronic voting machine at a polling station, one day ahead of the third phase of the general election, in Yangon, Myanmar, Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)
An official of the Union Election Commission announces the open of a polling station during the third phase of general election in Mandalay, central Myanmar, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)
A voter holds up her finger marked with ink indicating she voted at a polling station during the third phase of general election in Mandalay, central Myanmar, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)
