Date: July 23, 2024 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov BOSTON — An Abington man was sentenced on June 18th in federal court in Boston for conspiring to distribute oxycodone pills. Kenneth Veiga was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper to 60 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release. In April 2024, Viega pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute oxycodone pills. Between November 2022 and May 2023, intercepted communications revealed that Veiga and others were involved in an oxycodone drug trafficking organization. During a search of Veiga’s previous residence in July 2023, oxycodone pills along with a polymer-80 9 mm pistol and nine rounds of commercially manufactured ammunition were seized. Additionally, fentanyl pills, oxycodone pills and approximately $58,000 were seized during a separate search of Veiga’s current apartment. Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy; Harry Chavis, Jr., Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS CI), Boston Field Office; Stephen Belleau, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration, New England Field Division; John E. Mawn, Jr., Interim Colonel of the Massachusetts State Police; and Ketty Larco-Ward, Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s Boston Division made the announcement today. Valuable assistance was provided by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; United States Coast Guard Investigative Service; Barnstable County Sheriff’s Office; and the Barnstable, Dennis, Bourne, Falmouth, Mashpee, Yarmouth and Sandwich Police Departments. Assistant U.S. Attorney John T. Mulcahy of the Criminal Division is prosecuting the case. This effort is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) 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. The details contained in the charging document are allegations. The remaining defendants are presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in the court of law. CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.
