A former DEA agent is convicted of protecting drug traffickers

BUFFALO, N.Y. — (AP) — A former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent in Buffalo, New York, was convicted of corruption Thursday following a second trial on charges he used his position to protect drug traffickers he believed were associated with organized crime.

Jurors found Joseph Bongiovanni, 60, guilty on seven of the 11 counts he faced.

Prosecutors said Bongiovanni, for at least a decade, shielded childhood friends who became drug dealers and other suspects with ties to organized crime, tipping them off to investigations and falsifying DEA reports. He was accused of taking at least $250,000 in bribes that prosecutors said he used for necessities, as well as trips and other luxuries.

“This jury determined he was a corrupt federal agent," Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Tripi said at a news conference after the verdict, "and he violated his oath and duties to protect those that he should have been investigating and arresting.”

The case cast a harsh light on the DEA's supervision of agents amid a string of corruption scandals at the agency. Bongiovanni is among at least 16 DEA agents brought up on federal charges since 2015. Many of the cases resulted in prison terms, including two former DEA supervisors sentenced in a Miami bribery scandal involving intelligence leaks to defense attorneys.

Bongiovanni was convicted of four counts of obstruction of justice, as well as single counts of conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and making false statements to law enforcement.

Jurors acquitted him of a bribery charge, and additional fraud, conspiracy and obstruction charges.

Bongiovanni's attorney, Robert Singer, said he would appeal.

Thursday's verdict comes after a jury in April convicted the former Buffalo agent of lying to federal authorities about a DEA file he kept at home, but could not not reach agreement on most other charges.

During a retrial on the unresolved counts that began Aug. 5, jurors heard from more than 60 witnesses.

Bongiovanni did not testify at either trial.

“This was a hard fought road to justice,” U.S. Attorney Trini Ross said. “But in the end we got there.”

The case is part of a sex-trafficking prosecution involving the Pharoah’s Gentlemen’s Club outside Buffalo. Bongiovanni was childhood friends with the strip club’s owner, Peter Gerace Jr., who authorities say has close ties to both the Buffalo Mafia and the violent Outlaws Motorcycle Club. Gerace is awaiting trial on numerous charges, including that he bribed Bongiovanni. He has pleaded not guilty.

Judge Lawrence Vilardo allowed Bongiovanni to remain out of custody but required him to wear an ankle monitor pending sentencing June 9. He faces up to 20 years in prison.

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Associated Press Writer Jim Mustian contributed to this story.

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