BUFFALO, N.Y. — Jurors at the trial of Joseph Bongiovanni heard testimony on Thursday regarding how a major drug ring was busted in 2017, which prosecutors say was allowed to operate and flourish for years under the protection of the former DEA agent now on trial.
During morning testimony current DEA agent David Leary recalled a meeting in 2013 inside the agency's Buffalo office in the Electric Tower, where Bongiovanni mentioned he'd been working a case involving a major drug ring but had been stymied from learning the location of their warehouses or grow facility.
Leary offered to assist and within days identified this non-descript building on Sycamore Street as a target.
If the building was part of the drug ring's operation, it was operating about 400 yards from the DEA offices.
Leary started watching the place, but he said when he told Bongiovanni, the more senior agent told him to back off the surveillance.
"I didn't understand why. We had an office full of agents, and we weren't busy," Leary said on the stand.
Agent Leary persisted. He got a license plate on a truck and subpoenaed utility bills, indicating both the vehicle and building were associated with alleged members of the drug ring.
He testified that he continued to suggest surveillance of the building because intelligence gathered could assist in gaining a search warrant.
However, he recalled Bongiovanni telling him that he had a confidential informant who indicated to him drug operations had been moved from there.
"It was his case ... and it wasn't my place to question him," agent Leary said.
Prosecutors allege this was part of a pattern of conduct by Bongiovanni to stall or stymie investigations into drug dealers from whom he'd been taking bribes over the course of nearly a decade and to the collective tune of $250,000.
They allege he was motivated by financial pressures and an "affinity" for members of the mafia, of which principles of the so-called Masecchia-Serio Drug Trafficking Organization were purported by federal authorities to be associates.
During their cross-examination of Leary lawyers for Bongiovanni, who denies the charges, elicited testimony indicating that surveillance isn't always the best course, especially if it can tip dealers to police presence.
Ring busted
Eventually, the drug ring was busted in 2017 by a task force comprised mostly of the Erie County Sheriff's Office and the FBI.
During Thursday afternoon testimony, Erie County Sheriff's Office Chief of Narcotics and Intelligence, D.J. Granville, said his team had gotten word of a plan to kidnap and rob alleged ringleader Ron Serio of drugs and money inside his palatial LeBrun Road mansion.
While the DEA investigation of the ring languished (prosecutors say purposely by Bongiovanni) for years, Granville said their investigation — which included the gathering of intelligence, warrants, and surveillance teams — took about two weeks before they sprang into action.
Part of their urgency was rooted in the belief that violence was about to erupt.
According to Granville, after observing Serio leave his mansion, he was tracked to a home on Huntington Avenue in North Buffalo, where another surveillance team observed him in a driveway exchanging duffle bags with another individual. They decided to move in, arrested Serio, and discovered the bags contained large amounts of marijuana, some cocaine, and cash.
A subsequent search of Serio's mansion led to the discovery of a marijuana grow room, large quantities of packaged drugs, and $22,000 in his vehicle.
According to prosecutors at the time of his arrest, Serio asked if he could speak to Bongiovanni. When asked by a deputy if he was "working" for Bongiovanni (as a confidential informant) Serio grew quiet.
"They caught the big fish and the big fish was pissed!" exclaimed Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Tripi in his opening statement to jurors at the trial's start. "He was pissed off because he was supposed to be protected."
It was the mention of Bongiovanni's name, however, that eventually led law enforcement to dig deeper into the DEA Agent.
Serio is expected to testify at the trial.
Granville also mentioned that the DEA was not notified of their investigation. Thus, according to prosecutors, Bongiovanni would not have gotten word of their operation and was thus unable to thwart it or to inform members of the drug ring.
Trial tidbits
Nice crib: Granville described Serio's 9,000-square-foot French Provincial mansion, designed by the famed architect E.B. Green, which features a swimming pool and tennis court on its 2.4-acre lot as, "the nicest property we've ever executed a warrant on." He noted that police were unsure how, or even if, they should break down the doors. "They were so gorgeous," he said.
Name dropping
Just before raiding the mansion, police noticed a vehicle pulling away. They ordered marked patrol cars to pull the vehicle over a distance from the scene and discovered Anthony Gerace behind the wheel.
He is the younger brother of Pharaoh's gentlemen's club owner Peter Gerace, a co-defendant in the case, who will be tried separately.
According to Granville, Gerace advised deputies that he and his family were "close friends" with then Buffalo Police Commissioner Daniel Derenda. According to Peter Gerace, Derenda, now retired, is the godfather of his daughter.
While name-dropping is common among arrestees, Granville said he couldn't ever recall anyone trying to drop a police commissioner's name to help them get out of trouble. Granville testified that he was later told that Derenda was contacted, but that the commissioner told a sheriff's supervisor, "Don't do the kid any favors on behalf of Derenda."
Playing the skins
During trial testimony, it was revealed that fellow DEA agents sometimes referred to Bongiovanni by the nickname, "Bongo".