| Two
Slovenes
Extradited to
SDNY on Heroin
Charges for
400 Kilos Now
Both Plead
Guilty
by
Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book
Substack
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Sept 18 – Gorazd Filimonović
and Gašper Urbanac of Slovenia
was arrested in Croatia in May
2021 on US drug trafficking
charges. Extradition took more
than two
years.
On June
22, U.S. District Court for
the Southern District of New
York Magistrate Judge Barbara
C. Moses held the presentment
of the two defendants. Inner
City Press was there, the only
media in the SDNY Mag
Court.
Judge Moses
sought a Slovenian
interpreter. The best or
nearest that could be found
was a Croatian interpreter,
Ms. Martic, by phone. Both
defendants spoke English. Mr.
Martic was on the phone only
in case they needed help.
(They didn't).
Both were
detained on
consent.
AUSA Hellman
asked about the complaint
being unsealed and was told
that it had been.
But an hour after
the proceeding, PACER still
said "This case is under
seal."
Jump cut to
August 17, 2023: The two were
indicted, on two counts, and
their case wheeled out to
District Judge Gregory H.
Woods.
On August 28 the
two appeared before Judge
Woods and pleaded not guilty.
The AUSA noted that a third
defendant, Aleksandar Gacevic,
had been slated for
extradition from Austria until
its was overturned by that
country's Supreme Court. A
fourth, Andrez Urbanc whose
brother is detained, is in a
country that does not have an
extradition treaty with the
US.
Jump cut to
September 18, 2024. Urbanc and
the Filimonovic plead guilty,
with sentencings set back to
back on February 27, 2025.
The case is
now US v. Filimonovic, et al.,
23-cr-425 (Woods)
***
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