Downey attorney charged with drug trafficking

DOWNEY – A Downey attorney was arrested last week on federal drug trafficking charges after she allegedly sold oxycodone pills online.

Jackie Ferrari, 36, was arrested late Friday by a federal law enforcement task force. Ferrari is a Downey resident and had recently started working at a Beverly Hills law firm, officials said.

The criminal complaint filed Jan. 15 and unsealed Tuesday specifically charges Ferrari with one count of distributing a controlled substance.

According to the complaint, an informant with a long history of purchasing narcotics from Ferrari made a buy earlier this month in which Ferrari sold the informant 50 oxycodone pills for $1,200.

The investigation into Ferrari began after a 22-year-old woman died in August of a fentanyl overdose, and text messages on her phone initially indicated she may have purchased the drugs from Ferrari.

While investigators do not currently believe that Ferrari sold the narcotics that led to the overdose death, they have continued to investigate her “based on evidence...that she is a large-scale trafficker in opiates via the website Craigslist,” according to an affidavit in support of the criminal complaint.

The affidavit also notes that two local police departments developed information about Ferrari’s alleged drug trafficking activities in late 2017.

Ferrari allegedly advertised the narcotics on Craigslist using coded names such as “roxy dolls” (i.e., Roxicodone, a short-acting version of oxycodone), “black rice” (black tar heroin), and “Chinese white rice” (powdered heroin that is often mixed with fentanyl).

If convicted as charged, Ferrari faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.