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.

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