A Massachusetts man was sentenced in federal court in Boston for leading a narcotics trafficking organization that distributed tens of thousands of counterfeit prescription pills laced with fentanyl and methamphetamine before laundering the money.
According to a release from the Massachusetts Department of Justice, U.S. District Court Senior Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV sentenced 35-year-old Lawrence Michael Nagle Jr. of Saugus to 19 years in prison followed by five years of supervised release. In April 2025, Nagle pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute controlled substances, involving 400 grams or more of fentanyl and 500 grams or 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; and one count of being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition.
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Nagle Jr. was one of 27 people indicted in October 2022 in connection with a large-scale scheme to market counterfeit prescription drugs.
In 2018, police officials named Nagle Jr. and his brother, Christopher Nagle, as leaders of a drug trafficking organization that distributed dangerous narcotics throughout Massachusetts’ North Shore region. The Nagle DTO distributed large amounts of a variety of controlled substances, including Adderall (both pharmaceutical-grade and counterfeit pills containing methamphetamine), methamphetamine, Xanax, Oxycodone (both pharmaceutical-grade and counterfeit pills containing fentanyl), cocaine, and marijuana, among others.
The Nagle DTO delivered controlled narcotics to a network of persons, who in turn redistributed the drugs to other traffickers, including independent but interconnected groups.
The inquiry resulted in several seizures of banned narcotics, including approximately 74,000 counterfeits. The seizure included Adderall tablets containing methamphetamine that weighed more than 24 kg, along with 591 counterfeit Adderall tablets. The inquiry resulted in several seizures of banned narcotics, including approximately 74,000 counterfeits, such as Adderall tablets containing methamphetamine, 1,000 counterfeit Oxycodone pills with fentanyl, and 101 counterfeit Oxycodone pills with fentanyl.
In January 2022, a search of Christopher Nagle’s flat yielded more than 74,000 counterfeit Adderall tablets containing methamphetamine, totaling more than 24 kg. On October 25, 2022, a search of Nagle, Jr.’s Saugus house and two properties he used to store narcotics—one of which was occupied by Castillo—resulted in the recovery of more than 7.8 kilos of fentanyl and more than 650 grams of methamphetamine. In addition, two Glock pistols and ammunition were discovered in Nagle, Jr.’s home, near oxycodone pills. Nagle Jr. was a felon at the time, and he was not allowed to own firearms or ammunition.
In August 2024, Christopher Nagle was sentenced to 139 months in jail.
The statement was delivered by United States Attorney Leah Foley, Jarod Forget, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s New England Division, and Colonel Geoffrey Noble, Superintendent of Massachusetts State Police. The Beverly, Everett, Peabody, Revere, Salem, Saugus, and Swampscott police departments all gave valuable help, particularly in gathering evidence and conducting investigations that contributed to the successful prosecution of Christopher Nagle. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys K. Nathaniel Yeager and Samuel R. Feldman of the Criminal Division, together with Annapurna Balakrishna of the Asset Forfeiture Unit.
This lawsuit is part of the Homeland Security Task Force project launched under Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People from Invasion. The HSTF is a government-wide effort to combat criminal cartels, international gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and overseas.
