Texas man sentenced for role in drug trafficking organization spanning SE Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Texas, and beyond

BOSTON – A Texas man was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Boston for a drug conspiracy involving the distribution of oxycodone pills across Southeastern Massachusetts and beyond.

According to the Massachusetts Department of Justice, 33-year-old Christan Russell of Tomball, Texas was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper to 70 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release. Russell has also been ordered to pay a fine of $30,000. In October 2024, Russell pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute oxycodone pills and structuring cash transactions. Russell was indicted by a federal grand jury in August 2023 along with five co-conspirators.

Between approximately February 2023 and July 2023, Russell supplied oxycodone pills to co-conspirator Kenneth Veiga, who then redistributed those oxycodone pills to Austin Gonsalves of Fall River, and John Campbell. Russell obtained these pills from a variety of sources in the Houston, Texas area. On March 13, 2023, Russell traveled from Houston to Boston to meet with Veiga where they met in a hotel room in Rhode Island that Russell rented. During that meeting, Russell supplied oxycodone pills to Veiga and Veiga provided cash in exchange. On March 14, 2023, Russell engaged in four structured cash deposits at ATMs in the Boston area. For each of these deposits, Russell orchestrated the deposit to be less than $10,000 in an attempt to evade the bank from reporting the deposit to the Internal Revenue Service.

Gonsalves obtained hundreds of pills at a time, allegedly from co-defendant Kenneth Veiga, in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars and redistributed the pills to others. On one occasion alone, Gonsalves paid $22,000 to obtain 800 oxycodone for further distribution. A search of Gonsalves’ Fall River residence in July 2023 resulted in the seizure of approximately $16,000 in cash and approximately 400 oxycodone pills.

Veiga pleaded guilty and in July 2024, was sentenced to 60 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release. Gonsalves pleaded guilty and in May 2024 was sentenced to 41 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release. In January 2025, Campbell was sentenced to four years in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release.

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 U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s Boston Division made the announcement today. Special assistance was provided by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives; U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service; Barnstable County Sheriff’s Office; and the Barnstable, Dennis, Bourne, Mashpee, Yarmouth, Sandwich and Falmouth Police Departments. Assistant U.S. Attorneys John T. Mulcahy and Samuel R. Feldman of the Criminal Division and Alexandra Amrhein of the Asset Forfeiture Unit are prosecuting the case.

This effort is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach.