A Lowell man known on the streets as “Cheese” is headed to federal prison for more than a decade after a jury found him guilty of moving thousands of methamphetamine pills disguised as prescription Adderall.
Richard Nguyen, a 30-year-old associate of the Asian Boyz gang, received a 128-month sentence in a Boston federal court yesterday, marking a major milestone in a years-long crackdown on drug manufacturing in the city.
The investigation into Nguyen and the Asian Boyz gang began back in 2021, as law enforcement scrambled to get a handle on a flood of counterfeit pills hitting the streets of Lowell.
Nguyen was a key player in a network that specialized in these homemade “Adderall” tablets, which were actually packed with methamphetamine. Over a span of nearly three years, Nguyen and his associates reportedly carried out 47 different sales to undercover officers and informants.
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Court records paint a picture of a business-like operation run out of a narrow alleyway. Between January and April of 2024, Nguyen met with a cooperating witness three times at his home. To keep things hidden, he conducted the deals on a back porch shielded by a tarp.
Using the Instagram handle “Cheese,” he negotiated prices with cold precision. On one occasion, he told a buyer he was charging $0.80 per pill because they cost him $0.70, noting he had to “make [his] dollar.”
The scale of the operation grew quickly. While the first deal at Nguyen’s home involved 1,000 pills, the next two transactions doubled in size, with Nguyen handing over roughly 2,000 pills each time.
U.S. District Court Judge Brian E. Murphy handed down the sentence, which includes five years of supervised release once Nguyen finishes his prison term. The conviction follows a November 2025 trial where Nguyen was found guilty of distributing massive quantities of methamphetamine.
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