Downey attorney charged with selling drugs she advertised on Craigslist – Whittier Daily News

An attorney from Downey has been charged with selling painkillers that she advertised on Craigslist, federal authorities said Tuesday.

Jackie Ferrari, 36, was arrested Friday following a five-month investigation that was triggered by the fatal overdose of a 22-year-old woman she allegedly sold drugs to, authorities said.

Though federal agents determined the fentanyl that killed the woman came from another dealer, they continued investigating Ferrari because they discovered she was a “large-scale trafficker” of opiates on Craigslist, according to a criminal complaint.

Ferrari was charged with a single count of distributing a controlled substance after she allegedly sold an informant 50 oxycodone pills for $1,200 earlier this month outside a Beverly Hills law firm where she is believed to work, authorities said.

Oxycodone is a generic for the highly-addictive painkiller OxyContin.

Afterward, Ferrari allegedly sent the informant and other regular customers a text message saying she had obtained a new supply, according to an affidavit.

Ferrari was due to make her first court appearance Tuesday afternoon in downtown Los Angeles, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Jail records show she is being held without bail.

Her attorney, Deputy Federal Public Defender Seema Ahmad, could not immediately be reached.

According to the complaint, Ferrari posted more than 100 listings on Craigslist advertising drugs including oxycodone, fentanyl, heroin, ecstasy, adderall, and paraphernalia that turns powder cocaine into crack.

She allegedly used code names and slang in the ads, such as “roxy dolls” for Roxicodone, “Chinese **White** Rice” for powdered heroin mixed with fentanyl and “Black Rice” for black tar heroin, the complaint says.

Investigators linked Ferrari to the ads by her phone number, as well as text messages with the dead woman, an undercover detective and an informant. They also identified her by non-drug related ads she put on Craigslist with her first name and phone number, such as house and pet sitting services, according to the complaint.

In one ad listing a room for rent in her home on Chaney Avenue, Ferrari allegedly described herself as an “attorney currently considering an alternate career.”

She began practicing law in California in June 2011 after graduating from New York Law School, according to the State Bar’s website.

An individual arrested by Costa Mesa police in December 2017 for allegedly running a pill counterfeiting scheme identified Ferrari as a distributor, authorities said.

Around the same time, an undercover Cypress detective responded to one of Ferrari’s ads on Craigslist and had a phone conversation with her arranging a sale, the complaint says. But the transaction was not completed because Ferrari allegedly made buyers prove they weren’t undercover officers by taking a pill in front of her, a requirement spelled out in the Craigslist ads.

“This allows you to find out that they’re real from pharm and hopefully I can feel rest assured that you’re not 5-0. Sound good?” Ferrari allegedly wrote.

Over several months, Drug Enforcement Administration and sheriff’s surveillance teams observed multiple transactions outside her home and in the parking lot of a nearby Ralph’s grocery store on Lakewood Boulevard, the complaint says. Sometimes, she was seen allegedly making cash deposits afterward at a Chase bank in Pico Rivera.

If convicted, Ferrari faces up to 20 years in federal prison.