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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A former Los Angeles-area attorney was sentenced today to a year split between federal prison and home confinement for illegally selling more than 1,000 oxycodone pills after offering the narcotic painkiller for sale on Craigslist.
Jackie Ferrari, 38, of Downey, pleaded guilty in Los Angeles federal court in 2019 to one count of illegally distributing oxycodone, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Ferrari sold a law enforcement source 50 oxycodone pills for $1,200 during, and was arrested eight days later after agreeing to sell the same source another 180 pills for $4,100.
The investigation into Ferrari began after a 22-year-old woman died in August 2018 of a fentanyl overdose, and text messages on her phone indicated she may have purchased the narcotics from a drug trafficker associated with Ferrari, prosecutors said.
While Ferrari was not linked to that death, authorities opened an investigation ``based on evidence ... that she is a large-scale trafficker in opiates via the website Craigslist,'' as well as information developed by two local police departments tying Ferrari to drug trafficking activities in late 2017, according to a court affidavit.
According to the document, records obtained from Craigslist showed Ferrari had a ``long history of posting advertisements for ... the sale of narcotics'' using coded names such as ``roxy dolls,'' referring to Roxicodone, a short-acting version of oxycodone; ``Chinese White Rice,'' a reference to ``China white'' or powdered heroin, which is often mixed with fentanyl; and ``Black Rice,'' or black tar heroin.
In her plea agreement, Ferrari admitted that she told customers they would be required to ingest a pill in her presence, to verify they were not law enforcement.