Boston Man Sentenced for Drug Trafficking Conspiracy

BOSTON – A Boston man was sentenced in federal court in Boston for heroin and fentanyl trafficking charges.

Anthony Tsina, 37, was sentenced on Dec. 8, 2020 by U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton to 34 months in prison and three years of supervised release. On Aug.13, 2020, Tsina pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute 100 grams or more of heroin and one count of possession with intent to distribute heroin.

According to court documents, in 2018, federal and state law enforcement began investigating a Brockton drug crew headed by Djuna Goncalves, a violent Brockton-area drug dealer. Interceptions from Djuna Goncalves’s cellphone led agents to other Boston-based drug traffickers who supplied Goncalves. Agents identified Tsina as a drug trafficker and customer of Jose Perez-Felix, a/k/a “Grande,” a member of a Boston-based drug cell that also supplied Goncalves.

According to court documents, agents intercepted several calls in which Tsina ordered narcotics from Perez-Felix. For instance, on April 9, 2019, a call was intercepted during which Tsina told Perez-Felix that he had been trying to get in touch with him and needed to see him.  Perez-Felix told Tsina he would meet him on Bowdoin Street in Dorchester. Perez-Felix was later observed driving to and parking on Bowdoin Street and Perez Felix delivered heroin/fentanyl to Tsina through the passenger side window of Tsina’s car. After Tsina left the area, Tsina’s vehicle was stopped by law enforcement and a bag containing a tan powdery substance, later determined to contain 60.7 grams of a mixture of heroin and fentanyl, was recovered. 

Of the 17 defendants named in the superseding indictment, nine, including Tsina, have pleaded guilty. The remaining defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling; David Magdycz, Acting Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Boston; Brian D. Boyle, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Boston Field Division; John Gibbons, United States Marshal for the District of Massachusetts; Colonel Christopher Mason, Superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police; Brockton Police Chief Emanuel Gomes; and Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christopher Pohl and Alathea Porter of Lelling’s Narcotics and Money Laundering Unit are prosecuting the case.

The operation was conducted by a multi-agency task force through the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), a partnership between federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. The principal mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt and dismantle the most serious drug trafficking, weapons trafficking and money laundering organizations, and those primarily responsible for the nation’s illegal drug supply. More information on the OCDETF program is available here: https://www.justice.gov/ocdetf/about-ocdetf.

The details contained in the indictment are allegations. The remaining defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.