Texas Man Sentenced In Drug Trafficking Case Linked To Cape Cod

MASSACHUSETTS — A Texas man will serve five years in prison as part of a multi-state drug trafficking case linked to Cape Cod and southeastern Massachusetts, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Massachusetts said.

Christan Russell, 33, of Tomball, Texas was sentenced to 70 months in prison 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, including Scott Lambert of Falmouth.

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 and John Campbell.

Russell obtained these pills from a variety of sources in the Houston, Texas area, officials said.

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.

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.