2 Plead No Contest to Selling Illegal Medicines

Two women pleaded no contest Wednesday to illegally selling Mexican prescription drugs from their separate storefronts at El Mercado, a popular shopping complex.

Maria Silvia Arenas, 39, and Hortencia Serrato, 54, did not fight charges of furnishing clients with dangerous drugs and in Arenas’ case, syringes and steroids, said Deputy City Atty. Don Kass.

Arenas was sentenced to three years’ summary probation and 60 days in jail or 45 days on a Caltrans work crew, Kass said. Serrato was also sentenced to three years’ probation, with 45 days in jail or 30 days Caltrans work.

The women were arrested with 10 other people by Los Angeles police and county health department workers during an Oct. 6, 1998, raid, Kass said. Serrato was working in Cindy’s Fashion when she was arrested. Arenas was in Botanica Reyna de Mexico.

Also arrested during the Oct. 6 raid was Maria Melenia Ibarra, 42, who is scheduled to be arraigned April 14, Kass said. A $50,000 arrest warrant has been issued for Georgina Aguilar Vazquez, who did not show up for a court appearance earlier this month.

Selling illegal Mexican medicine was a way of providing a service to customers who needed medication and could not afford to see a doctor, Vazquez told The Times during the Oct. 6 raid. However, health officials consider the practice extremely dangerous.

Kass said cases like Arenas and Serrato’s are being aggressively prosecuted because of the potential for serious harm to people who use prescription drugs without a doctor’s supervision.