Former DEA agent convicted of protecting drug traffickers

BUFFALO, NY (AP):

A former US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) 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 organised 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 organised crime, tipping them off to investigations and falsifying DEA reports. He was accused of taking at least US$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 US 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.