A Rockland man who sold fentanyl to a federal cooperating witness while he was still on supervised release from an earlier federal gun sentence has been sent back to federal prison for 88 months — more than seven years — by a judge in Boston.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, District of Massachusetts
Kerry Charlotin, 36, also known as “KG,” was sentenced on Monday, November 2, in federal court in Boston by U.S. District Court Judge Leo T. Sorokin, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts announced. Alongside the 88 months in prison, Judge Sorokin ordered four years of supervised release after the term. Charlotin had pleaded guilty in July 2026 to one count of conspiracy to distribute fentanyl.
Controlled buys in Brookline and Boston
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the investigation began in June 2025 into drug trafficking by Charlotin and his co-conspirator Shaquylle Burden, 31, of Roslindale, a neighbourhood of Boston. Prosecutors say the two men were actively trafficking significant quantities of fentanyl and other controlled substances in the greater Boston area. On various dates in 2025, Charlotin coordinated with Burden and met repeatedly with a federal cooperating witness to conduct controlled sales of fentanyl in Brookline and Boston. Over the course of the investigation, the two sold more than 280 grams of fentanyl, along with other controlled substances.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid so potent that even very small amounts can kill, which is why federal trafficking cases built on repeated controlled purchases draw sentences measured in years rather than months. The 280-plus grams in this case was the amount prosecutors say the pair sold to the cooperating witness during the investigation — not a street seizure estimate.
Arrest in South Carolina, and what the searches found
Charlotin and Burden were arrested and charged in December 2025. Following the controlled purchases, search warrants were executed that month, including on Charlotin's person after he was located and arrested in South Carolina, and at multiple residences in Massachusetts. During the searches, investigators recovered additional cocaine base, a loaded 9mm pistol and approximately 131.5 grams of cocaine packaged in plastic bags that had been unsuccessfully attempted to be flushed down a toilet. A firearm was also recovered from Burden's Roslindale residence at the time of his arrest, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
At the time of the fentanyl offences, Charlotin was serving a term of federal supervised release following a prior conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition, for which he had already served a five-year federal prison sentence. In other words, the drug conspiracy ran while he was still answerable to a federal court for the earlier case.
The earlier gun case
Charlotin's earlier federal conviction dates to 2020, when he was prosecuted in Boston for being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition and sentenced to five years in prison. He was released under supervision — and, prosecutors say, returned to drug trafficking in the greater Boston area while that supervision was still running. Both men pleaded guilty in July 2026; the charge they admitted carried a possible maximum of up to 20 years in prison, at least three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $1 million, with the actual sentence set by the judge under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines.
Burden's part of the case closed first: on October 19, 2026, he was sentenced to five years in prison for his role in the conspiracy. Charlotin's 88 months is the longer of the two sentences, reflecting, among the factors the court weighed, his record and the fact that the offences were committed on supervised release.
Who made the case
The sentence was announced by United States Attorney Leah B. Foley; Ted E. Docks, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Boston; and Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox. The FBI's Columbia Field Office in South Carolina provided valuable assistance, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. Assistant U.S. Attorney John T. Dawley of the Organized Crime & Gang Unit prosecuted the case.
The Justice Department says the case is part of Operation Take Back America, its nationwide initiative that marshals federal resources against cartels and transnational criminal organisations and the perpetrators of violent crime. Rockland, Charlotin's home town, is a Plymouth County community roughly 18 miles south of Boston; the sales at the heart of the case took place in Boston and in Brookline, the town that borders the city to the west.
What happens next
Charlotin now begins the 88-month federal term, after which the four years of supervised release ordered by Judge Sorokin will run. The Justice Department announcement listed no further hearings in his case, and Burden's case is already concluded — so Monday's sentencing closes the courtroom phase of a conspiracy that investigators built, purchase by purchase, over the second half of 2025.