VALLEY ROUNDUP : Van Nuys : Illicit-Prescription Seller Sentenced

A Van Nuys woman convicted of illegally dispensing prescription drugs at a Van Nuys swap meet was given the choice Wednesday of spending 90 days behind bars or 45 days on a graffiti-removal work crew, the Los Angeles city attorney’s office said.

Los Angeles Municipal Judge Sam Ohta also placed Bertha Cortes, 29, on three years’ probation after she pleaded no contest to attempting to dispense a prescription drug without a license, according to Deputy City Atty. Keith De La Rosa.

Since February, the city attorney’s office has filed criminal charges against 24 people as part of a crackdown on the illegal sale of prescription drugs. Of those cases--two of which involve a single defendant--12 have resulted in convictions, 11 are scheduled for arraignment and two and are set for trial.

Cortes’ arrest came after a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy assigned to the County Health Department’s Pharmaceutical Drug Task Force made an undercover buy at Cortes’ swap meet booth.

The deputy paid $7.99 for a box of Herklin shampoo, a lice treatment available only by prescription. When the task force moved in, they found other drugs including penicillin, injectable birth-control drugs containing estrogen, seizure medications, injectable steroids and inhaler medication, prosecutors said.