Massachusetts drug trafficking leader sentenced to prison after seizure of over 74,000 counterfeit pills

BOSTON – A Massachusetts man was sentenced in federal court in Boston for leading a Massachusetts-based drug trafficking organization that distributed tens of thousands of counterfeit prescription pills containing fentanyl and methamphetamine and laundered the proceeds. 

According to a release from the Massachusetts Department of Justice, 35-year-old Lawrence Michael Nagle, Jr. of Saugus was sentenced by U.S. District Court Senior Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV to 19 years in prison to be followed by five years of supervised release. In April 2025, Nagle pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances, involving 400 grams or more of fentanyl and 500 grams of more of methamphetamine; five counts of possession with intent to distribute various weights of fentanyl, methamphetamine and oxycodone; one count of possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime; one count of being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition; and one count of money laundering conspiracy.

Nagle, Jr. was one of 27 individuals charged, beginning in October 2022, in connection with a wide-ranging conspiracy to traffic counterfeit prescription pills.

In 2018, law enforcement identified Nagle, Jr. and his brother, Christopher Nagle, as leaders of a DTO distributing various controlled substances throughout the North Shore region of Massachusetts. The Nagle DTO distributed significant quantities of various controlled substances, including, Adderall (both pharmaceutical-grade pills and counterfeit pills containing methamphetamine), methamphetamine, Xanax, Oxycodone (both pharmaceutical-grade and counterfeit pills containing fentanyl), cocaine and marijuana, among others.

The Nagle DTO distributed controlled substances to a network of individuals who would then redistribute the drugs to other traffickers, including separate, but interconnected, organizations.

The investigation resulted in numerous seizures of controlled substances, including: over 74,000 counterfeit Adderall pills containing methamphetamine, weighing more than 24 kilograms; 591 counterfeit Adderall pills containing methamphetamine; 1,000 counterfeit Oxycodone pills containing fentanyl; and 101 counterfeit Oxycodone pills containing fentanyl.

In January 2022, a search of Christopher Nagle’s apartment recovered more than 74,000 counterfeit Adderall pills containing methamphetamine, weighing more than 24 kilograms. On Oct. 25, 2022, a search of Nagle, Jr.’s home in Saugus and two homes he used to store narcotics—one of which was inhabited by Castillo—resulted in the seizure of more than 7.8 kilograms of fentanyl and more than 650 grams of methamphetamine. In addition, two Glock firearms and ammunition were recovered from Nagle, Jr.’s house in close proximity to oxycodone pills. At the time, Nagle, Jr. was a felon who was prohibited from possessing firearms or ammunition.

In August 2024, Christipher Nagle was sentenced to 139 months in prison.

United States Attorney Leah Foley; Jarod Forget, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration, New England Division; and Colonel Geoffrey Noble, Superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police made the announcement. Valuable assistance was provided by the Beverly, Everett, Peabody, Revere, Salem, Saugus and Swampscott Police Departments. Assistant U.S. Attorneys K. Nathaniel Yeager, and Samuel R. Feldman of the Criminal Division and Annapurna Balakrishna of the Asset Forfeiture Unit prosecuted the case.

            This case is part of the Homeland Security Task Force initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad.