A Los Angeles-area lawyer has been arrested for allegedly selling opioids and other drugs on the online classified ad website Craigslist, the US Attorney's Office for the Central District of California has announced.
Jackie Ferrari was arrested last week on narcotics distribution charges by law enforcement officers. She was charged with one count of distributing a controlled substance, according to a criminal complaint filed 15 Jan. She did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
An affidavit filed by a Drug Enforcement Administration task force officer said Ferrari sold 50 pills of oxycodone — a synthetic painkiller — to a cooperating source working with law enforcement. Ferrari allegedly sent the source a text saying that she "recently obtained a new supply of oxycodone and had other drugs available for sale."
Law enforcement officers began investigating Ferrari after a 22-year-old woman with whom she communicated died of a fentanyl overdose in August. Investigators do not believe Ferrari sold the woman the narcotics that led to the overdose, but they continued to investigate her "based on evidence ... that she is a large-scale trafficker in opiates via the website Craigslist".
According to the affidavit, Ferrari used coded names such as "roxy dolls" and "black rise" on Craigslist to sell heroin, oxycodone and Adderall — a branded narcotic used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Two police departments collected information on Ferarri's drug trafficking in 2017, noted in the affidavit.
The 36-year-old lawyer most recently worked at the law office of Cary Goldstein, a palimony and family law firm in Beverly Hills. The firm's founder Cary Goldstein said he didn't know about the allegations against Ferrari when the company hired her.
"We are shocked and deeply troubled by the allegations leveled against Ferrari," Goldstein said in an email. "It is, in my mind, inexplicable as to how an accomplished young lawyer would have engaged in the conduct she is alleged to have partaken."
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