SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA / A news summary : The Local Review / DEVELOPMENTS IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY : Woman Who Sold Drugs at Swap Meet 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 Court 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 numerous criminal charges as part of a crackdown on the illegal sale of prescription drugs. Of those charged, 12 have been convicted, 11 others await arraignment and two pleaded not guilty and are scheduled 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.