By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
Joseph R. Bonavolonta, who had served as deputy assistant director for the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division since March 2018, has taken over as head of the Boston field office.
He’s no stranger to the Boston office, having previously served as assistant special agent in charge there from 2013 to 2017.
Bonavolonta has held a variety of leadership, operational, and investigative positions throughout his FBI career.
He entered the FBI in 1996 as an investigative specialist in the FBI’s New York Field Office.
In August 2000, he received his first assignment as a special agent in the New York Field Office, where he spent several years investigating the Bonanno La Cosa Nostra Family.
His work led to the convictions and/or guilty pleas of dozens of high-ranking members and associates of the Bonanno LCN Family, according to an FBI press release.
From 2006-2007, Bonavolonta served as the program manager in the Organized Crime Section at FBI Headquarters. He also directed an international organized crime initiative with the Italian National Police to combat criminal operations between the American-based LCN families and the Sicilian Mafia.
In 2008, he became a supervisory special agent of the corporate/securities fraud squad at the Newark Field Office in 2008. In 2013, Bonavolonta was named assistant special agent in charge of the Boston Field Office.
