DEA agent is on trial for taking $250,000 in bribes from the Mafia as he offered ‘umbrella of protection’ to mob-run strip club and even helped a high school teacher keep his weed-growing side hustle

A former Drug Enforcement Agency official made $250,000 by taking bribes from the mob and providing protection to his criminal allies in Buffalo, New York, according to prosecutors.

Joseph Bongiovanni, 59, allegedly used the veneer of a veteran DEA agent to derail investigations into his childhood friends, provide cover for a sex trafficking strip club and even help a connected high school English teacher sell his marijuana to maintain a growing side issue.

Prosecutors in his current federal government say Bongiovanni was a greedy racist who sidelined his colleagues by opening false files and encouraging them to spend less time investigating Italians and more time on blacks and Hispanics.

His protection ranged from providing “completely clear” assurances assuring trafficker friends that they were not on law enforcement’s radar, to leaking intelligence and opening fictitious cases that made it appear as if he was investigating them or targeting them as trusted informants, prosecutors said, a kind of catch-up. and-kill tactics that prevented other law enforcement agencies from pursuing their own cases.

This also positioned Bongiovanni to be notified whenever another agency became interested in one of the targets, a process known as deconfliction.

Prosecutors say Bongiovanni was a greedy racist who encouraged colleagues to spend less time investigating Italians and more time investigating blacks and Hispanics. Some of the evidence presented in court above

One of the rackets Bongiovanni is accused of protecting is Pharoah’s Gentlemen’s Club, a strip club outside Buffalo described by prosecutors as a haven for drug use and sex trafficking.

Bongiovanni is also accused of vouching for criminals, filing false reports and searching a sensitive DEA organized crime file that he had stored in his basement after his abrupt retirement.

One of the rackets Bongiovanni is accused of protecting is Pharoah’s Gentlemen’s Club, a strip club outside Buffalo described by prosecutors as a haven for drug use and sex trafficking. Bongiovanni was childhood friends with the owner, Peter Gerace Jr., who authorities allege has close ties to both the Buffalo Mafia and the notoriously violent Outlaws Motorcycle Club.

Prosecutors said Gerace had the officer on speed dial for advice when to cover up a stripper’s overdose. The evidence includes a voicemail in which Gerace Bongiovanni asks about tracking a drug dealer’s cell phone.

“Is there a way to ping it like the police do?” he said, according to court records. “I just want to know if you can do that or not.”

Race attorney Mark Foti said his client “denies all allegations and looks forward to being confronted with the government’s evidence at his trial.”

The long list of witnesses in the case includes dozens of federal law enforcement officers and a 30-year-old public school teacher who admitted to running a marijuana growing business while receiving confidential information from Bongiovanni.

Prosecutor Tripi said Bongiovanni had two rules, one for cronies who line his pockets and another for everyone else.

Prosecutors said club owner Gerace had the cop on speed dial for advice when he had to cover up a stripper’s overdose

Prosecutor Tripi said Bongiovanni had two rules, one for cronies who line his pockets and another for everyone else. Evidence presented by prosecutors above

Background checks did not reveal Bongiovanni’s previous drug use and ties to Italian organized crime in his native Buffalo

Background checks failed to reveal Bongiovanni’s prior drug use and ties to Italian organized crime in his native Buffalo, prosecutors said, and no member of law enforcement was on to him until a human trafficker who paid for Bongiovanni’s protection was arrested by another agency .

“He has that little dark secret,” Tripi said.

When authorities finally exposed him in 2019, he hastily retired and wiped his cell phone clean.

The trial, expected to last two months, is part of a broader sex trafficking prosecution that has taken sensational twists, including a judge involved committing suicide after the FBI raided his home, law enforcement officers trawling a pond in search of a overdose victim and planted dead rats outside the home of a government witness who prosecutors say was later killed by a fatal dose of fentanyl.

“Sometimes the DEA doesn’t get it right,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Tripi told jurors. “He was able to manipulate anyone because there is a certain amount of trust inherent in law enforcement. He did it under the supervision of supervisors who gave him inadequate supervision.”

Bongiovanni has denied charges of bribery, conspiracy and obstruction of justice that could land him behind bars for life. According to his lawyer, these are based on lies “that are so fantastic that they not only strain but also tear apart credibility.”

The lawsuit is the latest blow to the 4,100-agent DEA, which has indicted at least 16 agents on federal charges since 2015, a parade of misconduct that has exposed gaping holes in the agency’s oversight.

The crimes included child pornography, drug trafficking, leaking intelligence to lawyers and selling firearms to cartel associates, an Associated Press analysis found.

One carried a “Liberty or Death” flag and showed off his insignia outside the Capitol on Jan. 6. Another infiltrated the DEA in Chicago and helped traffickers smuggle thousands of kilos of cocaine from Puerto Rico to New York.

At least three veteran cops are serving prison terms of 10 years or more, including one who laundered money for cartels in Colombia and spent lavishly on expensive sports cars and Tiffany jewelry, and an Arkansas cop recorded taking bribes at a casino in Las Vegas. .

The cases, which come amid an epidemic of more than 100,000 fatal drug overdoses a year, often create years of headaches for the Justice Department to determine whether any investigation was tainted when rogue officers betrayed the badge.

The DEA declined to comment. DEA Administrator Anne Milgram is herself the subject of an ongoing Inspector General investigation into whether the agency improperly hired some of her former employees.

Like other DEA scandals, the Bongiovanni case underscores recurring questions about the agency’s hiring standards and its ability to root out corruption.