A pharmacy assistant who filled fraudulent prescriptions for OxyContin in North Vancouver for a man she believed was part of the United Nations gang has been spared a jail sentence.
Instead, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Shelley Fitzpatrick ordered Baby Marie Antoinette Delos Santos, 26, to serve two years less a day of house arrest for her role in trafficking 1,440 tablets of the powerful painkiller with a possible street value of more than $100,000.
Delos Santos was sentenced Friday in B.C. Supreme Court after being found guilty by a jury of six counts of trafficking OxyContin, by abusing her position at the Real Canadian Superstore pharmacy in North Vancouver.
Delos Santos admitted to filling the fraudulent prescriptions but argued in the trial that she had only done so because she was under duress from a man who told her he was part of the U.N. gang.
The jury rejected that and convicted her Dec. 4 on all counts.
According to evidence entered in the case, Delos Santos had worked at the North Vancouver pharmacy for six years when in December 2011 she started filling what she knew were fraudulent prescriptions for a man named Jesse Castillo and one of his associates.
Six times between Dec.
23, 2011 and Jan. 17, 2012, Castillo or the other man would hand a prescription to Delos Santos for 240 tablets of 80 milligrams of OxyContin - the highest dose available.
The prescriptions came from a triplicate prescription form stolen from an Abbotsford doctor.
Delos Santos bypassed the pharmacy's security procedures by falsely "verifying" the prescription.
Her actions were discovered later in January 2012 when a pharmacist at the store became suspicious about the prescriptions and called the doctor - who confirmed that he had not written them.
When she was confronted, Delos Santos initially denied knowing anything, but eventually told authorities she had filled the prescriptions out of fear about what the gang might do if she didn't.
Delos Santos denied being involved in any more transactions, but authorities found three more prescriptions for OxyContin in her purse - including two that had not been filled.
In handing down her sentence, the judge noted OxyContin is strictly controlled because it is highly addictive and subject to abuse. But there is still a flourishing black market for OxyContin - with the drug sometimes selling for as much as $1 per mg, the judge said.
"It is well known that gangs are involved in the distribution of OxyContin."
Delos Santos told the judge she didn't benefit financially from the drug sales and said she only took part because she was afraid.
But Fitzpatrick rejected the idea that Delos Santos was an entirely unwilling participant.
She pointed to phone records that showed Delos Santos had long regular conversations with Castillo and sent texts to him even when he had not contacted her.
"These are certainly not the actions of an innocent person who is desperately trying to avoid someone who has already pressured her," she wrote in her decision.
Fitzpatrick concluded Delos Santos' "naïveté and foolishness" had allowed her to be manipulated by criminals, but added, "she bears a great deal of responsibility" for the crimes.
Fitzpatrick opted not to send Delos Santos to jail, saying she has no criminal record and that her family depends on her financially.
She placed Delos Santos under house arrest with conditions to have no cellphone, no contact with Castillo and to perform 240 hours of community work service.
