Cape Cod Brothers Convicted In Oxycodone Trafficking Scheme

BOSTON – After a month-long federal trial, brothers Stanley D. Gonsalves and Joshua M. Gonsalves were convicted on multiple charges arising from a three-year conspiracy involving hundreds of thousands of 30-milligram oxycodone pills which were distributed on Cape Cod and generated over $5 million in proceeds.

Stanley Gonsalves, 36, of Sandwich, Mass., was convicted of an oxycodone trafficking conspiracy, a money laundering conspiracy, and 17 substantive money laundering charges. The money laundering charges relate to his purchase of two Mercedes vehicles and property located on Hoover Road in West Yarmouth. He was also convicted of possessing a firearm in furtherance of the oxycodone trafficking conspiracy.

Joshua M. Gonsalves, 34, of Dennisport, Mass., was convicted of an oxycodone trafficking conspiracy, a money laundering conspiracy, and a substantive money laundering charge in connection with his purchase of a Cadillac.

The jury also required the forfeiture of the property in West Yarmouth and issued money judgments totaling $5,074,575.

During the trial, witnesses testified that the conspiracy’s couriers transported multi-thousand-pill loads of 30-milligram oxycodone pills from South Florida up to New England, first by plane and later by car. Once the pills were brought to numerous area hotels or conspirators’ homes and apartments in Dorchester, Quincy, and Onset, Mass., the conspirators would divide them into 100-pill packs and then take the pills to Cape Cod for sale to the dealer-level customers.

The primary object of the related money laundering conspiracy was to use the millions of dollars in drug proceeds to purchase fresh supplies of oxycodone pills and to pay the ongoing expenses of the oxycodone conspiracy. During the trial, witnesses testified about seizures from the Gonsalves Brothers’ co-conspirators of two attempted south-bound cash shipments totaling $140,000, and an attempted north-bound pill shipment of 5,700 pills. Other large pill seizures occurred in Fort Lauderdale (8,000 pills), in Volusia County, Fla. (900 pills), along Route 6 in Barnstable (280 pills), and along Route 3 Southbound in Kingston, Mass (4,000 pills). Other related cash seizures from co-conspirators totaled $167,000.

The trial evidence also included extensive testimony about a car chase and rollover incident which occurred on Route 3 Northbound on May 13, 2011, in which the Gonsalves Brothers allegedly rammed their Mercedes SUV into a Volvo station wagon which they believed (incorrectly) contained the $225,000 in cash drug proceeds which had just been taken from them in a Bourne robbery. The men in the Volvo, who allegedly were only assisting the primary robbers (who were watching these events unfolding from a different car) managed to survive the rollover crash and then fled into the woods. In a recorded call a few days later, which was played at the trial, Stanley Gonsalves told a criminal associate about the robbery, boasting that the robbers “didn’t expect us to do what we did” in retaliation.

The four-year investigation that resulted in this case originated in Boston’s Chinatown, and initially focused on John (White Devil) Willis, a Cantonese-speaking Caucasian who is now serving a 20 year sentence, arising from his role as the Gonsalves Brothers’ primary oxycodone supplier between late 2009 and May 27, 2011.

The convicted charges carry statutory maximum sentences of 20 years for oxycodone trafficking conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and concealment laundering charges, 10 years for unlawful monetary transaction laundering, and a mandatory consecutive sentence of five years on the firearm charge. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

U.S. District Chief Judge Patti B. Saris scheduled sentencing for Jan. 16, 2015.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Vincent B. Lisi, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division; William P. Offord, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation in Boston; Michael J. Ferguson, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Boston Field Division; and Colonel Timothy P. Alben, Superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police, made the announcement today. Significant assistance was also provided by the DEA Cape Cod Drug Task Force, the Barnstable, Boston, Quincy, Dennis, Plymouth, Sandwich, Yarmouth, Bourne, and Bristol County Police Departments, the Florence County (South Carolina) Sheriff’s Office, the Broward County (Florida) Sheriff’s Department, the Volusia County (Florida) Sheriff’s Office, and the Dillon and Ridgeland (South Carolina) Police Departments.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Richard L. Hoffman and Timothy E. Moran of Ortiz’s Organized Crime Strike Force Unit.