Ivan Durasevic, Conspiracy to Possess With Intent to Distribute Cocaine, Pennsylvania 2019

PHILADELPHIA – In one of the largest drug seizures in U.S. history, Ivan Durasevic, 31, and Nenad Ilic, 41, both of Montenegro, were sentenced for their roles in a massive cocaine smuggling operation on the MSC Gayane.

Durasevic and Ilic worked as crew members on the commercial shipping vessel, with Durasevic serving as the second officer and Ilic as the engineer cadet. For months in early 2019, they conspired with others to engage in a bulk cocaine smuggling scheme.

On multiple occasions, crew members, including the defendants, helped load bulk packages of cocaine onto the vessel from speedboats that approached the vessel in the middle of the night under cover of darkness. The crew used the vessel’s crane to hoist cargo nets full of cocaine onto the vessel and then stashed the cocaine in the vessel’s shipping containers.

ter hiding the drugs among legitimate cargo, crew members used fake seals to reseal the shipping containers in which they had stashed the cocaine in order to disguise their clandestine activities and contraband. Durasevic and Ilic operated mobile “narco” phones to coordinate the bulk cocaine smuggling with others on land and recruited other crew members while at sea to assist in the scheme.

On June 17, 2019, federal, state, and local law enforcement agents boarded the MSC Gayane when it arrived at Packer Marine Terminal in Philadelphia and seized about 20 tons of cocaine worth over $1 billion U.S. dollars from its shipping containers.

Durasevic was sentenced to six and a half years in prison and two years of supervised release. Ilic was sentenced to seven years in prison followed by two years of supervised release. Five other crew members from the MSC Gayane, including Bosko Markovic, Vladimir Penda, Stefan Bojevic, Fonofaavae Tiasaga, and Laauli Pulu, were arrested, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine, and have previously been sentenced based on their participation in the scheme.

“As the sentences for the illegal conduct in this case continue to happen, they serve as a reminder that drug smuggling operations will be uncovered one way or another,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams. “Prosecutors in our Office have been working non-stop to pursue justice since the MSC Gayane docked in the port of Philadelphia over two years ago, and we will not stop until the case is closed.”