Dancer became a go-between for Pharaoh's customers and drug dealer
Patrick Lakamp

See: https://buffalonews.com/news/local/...a9dad36-d719-11ee-834b-57e44ac493f6.html

Serio's mansion.

Serio made 298 cash deposits over $10,000. That 3 million would more than pay for the place-LOL.

Buffalo DEA agent claims Bongiovanni discouraged surveillance on suspected drug spot
A former agent is accused of taking bribes to protect operators of large-scale drug ring in Western New York.
Dave McKinley WGRZ
https://www.wgrz.com/article/news/c.../71-29a3db8e-6c0e-454b-a632-4076c5a0ca33

Pharaoh's witness death seen as 'mega case,' but prosecution won't seek death penalty
Patrick Lakamp

See: https://buffalonews.com/news/local/...1847596-d7df-11ee-a73c-4f49a585bbd8.html

A former performer at Pharaoh's Gentlemen's Club testified that she and club owner Peter Gerace did cocaine with the former DEA agen

On WGRZ News by Dave McKinley

Also mentions that Gerace provided women to we’ll know Buffalo restauranteur and philanthropist Russel Salvatore.

Sheriff's Office avoided using DEA database, so federal agent did not see an arrest coming
Patrick Lakamp

See: https://buffalonews.com/news/local/...3fb88a4-da91-11ee-94c7-c726229d1abc.html

Masecchia called a teacher by day and a "mafia strongman" by night.

Despite his absence, Gerace looms over ex-DEA agent's trial
Bongiovanni case inextricably linked to strip club owner

PATRICK LAKAMP

See: https://buffalonews.com/despite-his...urce=twitter&utm_campaign=user-share

Ron Serio “Greeny” testified that Masecchia was a mob member and asked him if he could become a made man to which Masacchia replied, “Just shut up and keep making money.”

Drug trafficker who owned mansion tells all about his criminal rise and how it suddenly fell apart
From the Complete coverage: The case of ex-DEA agent Joseph Bongiovanni series
Patrick Lakamp

With money pouring in from his marijuana and cocaine trafficking, Ronald Serio got a meeting in Canada with Frank J. “Butch” BiFulco, once viewed by federal authorities as a longtime leader in the local Mafia.

Ronald C. Serio is awaiting sentencing on felony drug and weapons charges stemming from a 2017 raid at his former Lebrun Road mansion in Amherst. The case against Serio is part of a federal investigation into organized crime in Buffalo. Serio pleaded guilty to the charges.

Serio, 47, testified Monday that he sought the 2014 meeting with “Butchie BiFocals," arranged by Serio's drug-trafficking partner Michael Masecchia, because he was looking for more marijuana suppliers in an attempt to control the market in Western New York.

BiFulco, who died in 2020, was not the only person who Serio identified in his testimony against former Drug Enforcement Administration agent Joseph Bongiovanni. Serio said he paid at least $250,000 in bribes to Bongiovanni between 2010 and 2017 as a way to get names of anyone informing law enforcement officials about his drug-trafficking organization. On Monday, the 13th day of testimony in Bongiovanni's bribery and corruption trial, Serio emerged as a pivotal witness naming names. Serio identified or confirmed the roles of more than two dozen people who he said helped him grow, buy, sell or transport illegal drugs.

...Snip...

Serio became the second government witness to talk about organized crime connections in the case, with Masecchia figuring in both accounts.

Earlier in the trial, Selva, who said he negotiated the bribe payments with Bongiovanni, said he once asked Masecchia, "Are you connected? Are you a made guy?”

Selva recounted that Masecchia said yes.

Serio said he asked Masecchia what it took "to be a made guy."

"He told me to shut up and keep making money," Serio said.

Serio said BiFulco was Masecchia's "godfather," enabling Masecchia to arrange the meeting.

Masecchia, who was sentenced to prison in May 2022 on felony drug charges, admitted getting law enforcement sensitive information from Bongiovanni. But Masecchia made no admission of being a member of the Mafia in his plea agreement.

After Serio's arrest in April 2017, Serio hesitated to tell law enforcement officials what he knew about local people involved in his drug-trafficking operation, partly because he didn't want to inform on his friends but also because he was scared of Masecchia.

"It got to the point I had to come clean," he said.

...Snip...

Mark Falzone, 46, of North Buffalo, who called himself Serio's friend, testified last week that he was struggling financially when he became involved in Serio's drug-trafficking organization.

"I was complaining about my house being in foreclosure and he said he could help if I helped unload packagers," Falzone said.

Falzone helped unload three shipments of marijuana for $500 a load. He unloaded at his home 100 pounds of marijuana that came in packages hidden in wood pellets. He unloaded another 100 pounds hidden in mulch delivered to Serio's warehouse at Sycamore Street and Michigan Avenue. The third shipment was unloaded at Serio's mansion, also hidden in mulch, Falzone said. He spread the mulch around Serio's yard.

Falzone said he was also once paid $1,000 to drive to and from New York City, following behind Serio's car. If a police vehicle started following Serio, Falzone was instructed to drive erratically, acting as decoy, to distract the police officer from Serio's car.

Then came Serio's arrest in April 2017.

Falzone said he met shortly afterward with Masecchia, who was surprised by the arrest.

"I talked to my guy and Ron wasn't on any radars," Falzone said Masecchia told him.

There was a reason for that. The Erie County Sheriff's Office and FBI made the arrest, without informing the DEA. So Bongiovanni knew nothing of it.

For the whole article see: https://buffalonews.com/news/local/...a4f7b18-dff4-11ee-8373-5774b2dc2f77.html

No one was looking at Bongiovanni. And then one investigator noticed Ron Serio starting to squirm
Buffalo News | Patrick Lakamp

A federal agent’s question, asked again and again, changed the course of an investigation in a way nobody saw coming with a Drug Enforcement Administration special agent ending up in handcuffs.

This question jolted the investigation: What does it mean to be connected?

Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Curtis Ryan put that question to Ron Serio, an Amherst drug trafficker who had been caught by FBI agents and sheriff’s investigators in April 2017 with a large amount of marijuana in a duffel bag and some cocaine.

During a meeting more than a year after his arrest between Serio and federal agents and prosecutors, Ryan’s initial focus was to glean details about Serio’s distribution network, motorcycle club members at Pharaoh’s Gentlemen’s Club and Serio’s relationship with Peter Gerace Jr. and his brother Anthony Gerace.

It was only when Ryan asked about the Geraces that Serio’s demeanor changed.

“He was particularly uncomfortable when I asked him about Peter and Anthony Gerace,” Ryan testified last week in U.S. District Court, recalling Serio said the two “carried a lot of weight in the community.”

Ryan picked up on Serio’s discomfort, so he zeroed in on what it means to be connected.

“He was trying to evade answering that question,” Ryan recalled. “I continued to ask him the same question. And I was going to ask it until he answered it.”

Then came the answer that changed everything. Serio uttered a name: Joseph Bongiovanni.

The onetime DEA agent had provided him information about informants and investigations as a way to shield Serio’s drug operation, Serio said.

Not a single member of law enforcement was investigating Bongiovanni before the Serio interview on July 20, 2018.

“It never entered my mind,” Ryan said.

For the whole article see: https://buffalonews.com/news/local/...b6aa5ec-e2d3-11ee-aa16-eb8f2eb69d98.html

Gerace's ex-wife says she handed Bongiovanni envelopes full of cash at strip club
Patrick LaKamp | The Buffalo News

The ex-wife of Peter Gerace Jr. testified Tuesday that she twice gave onetime Drug Enforcement Administration agent Joseph Bongiovanni envelopes "thick" with cash at Pharaoh's Gentlemen's Club in Cheektowaga.

Katrina Nigro also said Gerace gave Bongiovanni a 50th birthday card containing $5,000 in cash.

Nigro, 41, called the birthday present "over the top."

"I never got a gift like that," she said.

"The evidence will show that those were rewards for a job well done," Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Tripi told jurors earlier in Bongiovanni's bribery and corruption trial.

...SNIP...


Tripi has said Nigro "was intimately placed in that club."

"She knows who got brought upstairs to have sex with dancers," Tripi said. "She knows how many overdoses there were. She knows Gerace's cocaine distribution and who was involved.

"And one thing that she'll also know is that this defendant would come for his envelopes of cash every so often, he would come to a side door and enter where there were no cameras, and she would provide the envelopes of cash to the defendant," Tripi told jurors earlier in the trial. "And then she'll tell you about another time when she and Peter Gerace were at the defendant's birthday party at a restaurant on Hertel Avenue, and Gerace's gift to the defendant was a card stuffed with cash."

...SNIP...

She previously told The Buffalo News she had a ringside seat to Buffalo Mafia activities during her four years as Gerace’s wife. They divorced in 2018.

The News has previously reported Nigro has served as a witness for federal law enforcement authorities investigating suspected organized crime activities involving her ex-husband and others, but Tripi on Tuesday did not focus on Italian organized crime.

Tripi asked her about the Outlaws Motorcycle Club members at Pharaoh's.

The club's members were at Pharaoh's every Wednesday, she said.

"It was like their church day," she said.

...SNIP...

For the whole article see: https://buffalonews.com/news/local/...6c94.html#tracking-source=home-top-story

[

HUNTER: Buffalo Mob trial has bent DEA agent, a judge, peeler bars and a dead stripper
Author of the article: Brad Hunter
Published Mar 19, 2024


https://torontosun.com/news/world/h...b581afd-2c3e-425f-a4a5-dbd5b41f89ea/amp/

Thanks NickleCity !

^^^
My pleasure Hollander

Here is todays 6pm newscast where Bongiovanni’s former partner at the DEA took the stand:
Former DEA agent and Bongiovanni partner takes stand WGRZ-TV Mar 20, 2024 Anthony Cazzulo testified that Joseph Bongiovanni got in the way of his investigation of key suspects Bongiovanni is accused of protecting. YouTube link to 6pm newscast:

Cash deposits seen as bribes by prosecutors called 'life raft' for accused ex-DEA agent
Patrick LaKamp

Ballooning credit card balances. Borrowing money to pay off previous loans. Bouncing a child support check.

Federal prosecutors say Joseph Bongiovanni was under financial pressure as a special agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration, piling up debt while splurging on a Cabo San Lucas destination wedding, buying a classic Buick Electra convertible and spending thousands of dollars with a new wife on clothing, furniture and jewelry.

Five weeks into Bongiovanni’s bribery and corruption trial, prosecutors say unexplained cash deposits enabled him to break even financially over a period of years they contend he received a quarter of a million dollars or more in cash bribes from a drug-trafficking organization as well payments from a Cheektowaga strip club owner.

See: https://buffalonews.com/news/local/...3c73.html#tracking-source=home-top-story

Wife testifies, Bongiovanni doesn't, before defense rests
From the Complete coverage: The case of ex-DEA agent Joseph Bongiovanni series
Patrick Lakamp

See: https://buffalonews.com/news/local/...4203f3a-ec6c-11ee-8604-6f584293b2f0.html

__________________________________

Testimony wraps up at Bongiovanni Trial
WGRZ-TV | 6pm Newscast

The trial has lasted a month and a half with 75 witnesses having taken the stand.

Great summary of the case by Patrick LaKamp at The Buffalo News: https://buffalonews.com/news/local/...01dfa40-f033-11ee-99a8-6ffdb183f45d.html