A Texas man was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Boston for a drug conspiracy that involved the distribution of oxycodone pills across Southeastern Massachusetts and beyond.
According to the Massachusetts Department of Justice, U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper sentenced 33-year-old Christan Russell of Tomball, Texas, to 70 months in prison and three years of supervised release. Russell was also forced to pay a fine of $30,000. Russell pleaded guilty in October 2024 to a conspiracy to distribute and possess oxycodone tablets with the purpose of distributing them as well as structuring monetary transactions. Russell was indicted by a federal grand jury in August 2023, along with five other coconspirators.
Russell delivered oxycodone tablets to co-conspirator Kenneth Veiga between February and July 2023, who then redistributed them to Austin Gonsalves of Fall River and John Campbell. Russell got these tablets from various sources in the Houston, Texas region. Russell traveled from Houston to Boston on March 13, 2023, to meet with Veiga at a hotel room in Rhode Island that Russell had hired. During the encounter, Russell gave Veiga oxycodone pills in exchange for cash. On March 14, 2023, Russell made four structured cash deposits at Boston ATMs. Russell organized each of these deposits to be less than $10,000 to prevent the bank from reporting the deposit to the Internal Revenue Service. Boston Restaurant Guide
Gonsalves allegedly got hundreds of pills at a time from co-defendant Kenneth Veiga in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars, which he then dispersed. On one occasion, Gonsalves paid $22,000 for 800 oxycodone to distribute them further. A search of Gonsalves’ Fall River home in July 2023 yielded around $16,000 in cash and 400 oxycodone tablets.
Veiga pleaded guilty and was sentenced in July 2024 to 60 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. In May 2024, Gonsalves entered a guilty plea and was given a sentence of 41 months in prison and three years of supervised release. In January 2025, the court found Campbell guilty and sentenced him to four years in jail, followed by three years of supervised release.
The announcement was made by United States Attorney Leah B. Foley, Stephen Belleau, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration, New England Field Division; Colonel Geoffrey D. Noble, Superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police; Thomas Demeo, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, Boston Field Office; and Ketty Larco-Ward, Inspector in Charge of the United States Postal Inspection Service’s Boston Division. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the United States Coast Guard Investigative Service, the Barnstable County Sheriff’s Office, and the Barnstable, Dennis, Bourne, Mashpee, Yarmouth, Sandwich, and Falmouth Police Departments all gave special assistance. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant US Attorneys John T. Mulcahy and Samuel R. Feldman from the Criminal Division, as well as Alexandra Amrhein from the Asset Forfeiture Unit. Boston Restaurant Guide
This attempt is part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force’s operation. OCDETF employs a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach to identify, disrupt, and dismantle the most powerful criminal organizations that pose a threat to the United States.
