Antonio Camillo, Conspiracy to Distribute Fentanyl, Massachusetts 2024

Antonio Camillo, a 21-year-old from Lawrence, is going down for his role in flooding the Merrimack Valley with fentanyl. The hard drugs he helped push could have killed hundreds. Today, he was sentenced to 34 months in federal prison and slapped with three years of supervised release after pleading guilty to a high-stakes fentanyl conspiracy.

U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper handed down the sentence in Boston, holding Camillo accountable for one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 400 grams or more of fentanyl, plus a separate count of distribution and intent to distribute. The charges stem from a months-long federal investigation that peeled back the layers of a sprawling drug network operating in one of Massachusetts’ hardest-hit regions.

In September 2018, Camillo sold nearly 40 grams of fentanyl to an undercover officer—a haul that alone could have caused mass casualties. That transaction was just one piece of a broader operation. Authorities say he was a cog in a ruthless drug organization pumping lethal doses of synthetic opioids into Lawrence and surrounding communities, fueling overdoses and destabilizing neighborhoods.

The crackdown came in October 2018, when federal agents swept through the city, arresting Camillo alongside dozens of others targeted as impact players and repeat offenders. The operation was a coordinated strike under Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a DOJ initiative reinvigorated in 2017 to dismantle violent crime networks through federal, state, and local collaboration.

U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling and Brian D. Boyle, Special Agent in Charge of the DEA’s New England Field Division, announced the sentencing. Prosecution was led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Philip C. Cheng of Lelling’s Narcotics and Money Laundering Unit, who built the case brick by brick to ensure Camillo wouldn’t walk.

While 34 months may seem short given the deadly nature of fentanyl, federal authorities say it’s part of a larger strategy to disrupt supply chains and dismantle trafficking cells. But for families in the Merrimack Valley who’ve lost loved ones to overdoses, the real sentence is measured in grief—and they’re demanding tougher penalties for dealers playing Russian roulette with street drugs.

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