Former DEA agent sentenced to 5 years in prison for using badge to
protect drug trafficking friends
[January 22, 2026]
By JIM MUSTIAN
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — In two decades of kicking in doors for the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration, Joseph Bongiovanni often took on the
risks of being the “lead breacher," meaning he was the first person into
the room.
On Wednesday, he felt a familiar uncertainty awaiting sentencing for
using his DEA badge to protect childhood friends who became prolific
drug traffickers in Buffalo, New York.
“I never knew what was on the other side of that door — that fear is
what I feel today,” Bongiovanni, 61, told a federal judge, pounding the
defense table as his face reddened with emotion. “I've always been
innocent. I loved that job.”
U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence J. Vilardo sentenced the disgraced
lawman to five years in federal prison on a string of corruption counts.
The punishment was significantly less than the 15 years prosecutors
sought even after a jury acquitted Bongiovanni of the most serious
charges he faced, including an allegation he pocketed $250,000 in bribes
from the Mafia.
The judge said the sentence reflected the complexity of the mixed
verdicts following two lengthy trials and the almost Jekyll-and-Hyde
nature of Bongiovanni's career, in which the lawman racked up enough
front-page accolades to fill a trophy case.
Bongiovanni once hurtled into a burning apartment building to evacuate
residents through billowing smoke. He locked up drug dealers, including
the first ever prosecuted in the region for causing a fatal overdose.
“There are two completely polar opposite versions of the facts and polar
opposite versions of the defendant,” Vilardo said, assuring prosecutors
five years behind bars would pose a considerable hardship to someone who
has never been to prison.
Defense attorney Parker MacKay noted the judge had acknowledged
Bongiovanni as a “beacon” of the Buffalo community. The government's
request for a 15-year sentence, he added, was “completely unmoored to
the nature of the convictions.”
“As Mr. Bongiovanni told the judge at sentencing, he is innocent, and we
look forward to continuing to work with him to prove that,” MacKay told
The Associated Press.
A jury in 2024 convicted Bongiovanni of four counts of obstruction of
justice, counts of conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy
to distribute controlled substances and making false statements to law
enforcement.
Prosecutors said Bongiovanni's “little dark secret” caused immeasurable
damage over 11 years. They likened him to Jose Irizarry, a disgraced
former DEA agent serving a 12-year federal sentence after confessing to
laundering money for Colombian drug cartels.
Bongiovanni upheld an oath not to the DEA, they argued, but to organized
crime figures in the tight-knit Italian American community of his North
Buffalo upbringing. During sentencing, Bongiovanni’s family dissolved
into tears on the front row of the packed courtroom in downtown Buffalo.
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Joseph Bongiovanni, left, leaves federal court with his wife,
Lindsay Bongiovanni, after being sentenced to 5 years in prison on
corruption charges, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026, in Buffalo, N.Y. (AP
Photo/Jim Mustian)
Prosecutors said Bongiovanni's corruption involved as much inaction
as calculated coverup. They pointed to a turning point in 2008 when
Bongiovanni could have acted on intelligence about traffickers he
knew whose operation would evolve into a large-scale organization
with links to California, Vancouver, and New York City.
He also was accused of authoring bogus DEA reports, stealing
sensitive files, throwing off colleagues, outing confidential
informants, covering for a sex-trafficking strip club and helping a
high school English teacher keep his marijuana-growing side hustle.
Prosecutors said he brazenly urged colleagues to spend less time
investigating Italians and focus instead on Black and Hispanic
people.
“His conduct shook the foundation of law enforcement — and this
community — to its core,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Tripi told
the judge. “That's what a betrayal is.”
The ex-agent's downfall came amid a sex-trafficking prosecution that
took sensational turns, including an implicated judge who killed
himself after the FBI raided his home, law enforcement dragging a
pond in search of an overdose victim and dead rats planted outside
the home of a government witness who prosecutors allege was later
killed by a fatal dose of fentanyl.
It also involved 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. A separate jury
convicted Gerace of a sex trafficking conspiracy and of paying
bribes to Bongiovanni.
The prosecution also cast a harsh light on the DEA after a string of
corruption scandals prompted at least 17 agents brought up on
federal charges over the past decade. Last month, prosecutors
charged another former agent with conspiring to launder millions of
dollars and obtain military-grade firearms and explosives for a
Mexican drug cartel.
Frank Tarentino, the DEA’s northeast associate chief of operations,
said Bongiovanni’s sentence “sends a powerful message that those who
betray their badge will be held accountable to the fullest extent of
the law.”
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