A former DEA agent has been 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 after a second trial on charges that he used his position to protect drug traffickers he believed were linked to organized crime.

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

Prosecutors said Bongiovanni spent at least a decade protecting 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, which prosecutors say he used for necessities, as well as trips and other luxuries.

“This jury has found that 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 he was charged with investigating and arresting.”

The case shined a harsh light on the DEA’s oversight of agents amid a series of corruption scandals at the agency. Bongiovanni is one of at least 16 DEA agents indicted on federal charges since 2015. Many of the cases resulted in prison sentences, including two former DEA supervisors convicted in a Miami bribery scandal that leaked intelligence to lawyers.

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 a controlled substance and making false statements to law enforcement authorities.

Jurors acquitted him of bribery charges and other 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 cop of lying to federal authorities about a DEA file he kept at home, but could not reach an agreement on most other charges.

During a retrial on the unsolved cases, which began on August 5, jurors heard from more than 60 witnesses.

Bongiovanni did not testify at either trial.

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

The case is part of a sex trafficking prosecution involving 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 free but required him to wear an ankle monitor ahead of his June 9 sentencing. He faces a prison sentence of up to twenty years.

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Associated Press writer Jim Mustian contributed to this story.