Two Women Accused in Illegal Plot to Ship Drug

A Huntington Beach woman pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges that she acted as a middleman in a conspiracy to illegally transport and sell a prescription drug.

Bail was set at $100,000 for Linetta Wilson, 32, and co-defendant Andrea DeWitt, 24, who also pleaded not guilty. Both were being held late Thursday in the Orange County Jail.

The two were arrested earlier this week on charges that they took part in a scheme to provide prescription cough syrup containing codeine to people who may have used it to enhance drug-induced highs.

“We believe that this drug is used to dip marijuana cigarettes in so that they have a higher potency,” said Tori Richards, a spokeswoman for the Orange County district attorney’s office.

The women are charged with shipping 132 bottles of Phenergan from a Federal Express office in Irvine to an address in Kimble County, Texas. After becoming aware of the operation, Richards said, investigators from the California Department of Justice monitored a shipment in January.

“At this point,” Richards said, “we don’t know how many shipments there were.”

Still under investigation, she said, is how the women obtained the prescription medicine and for whom the shipments were intended.

One person in Texas, Richards said, was arrested in connection with the scheme to sell the medicine, which can bring $40 to $60 an ounce on the black market. If convicted, Richards said, the two women could each face up to 10 years in prison and a $60,000 fine.

Wilson set track records while a student at the University of Nebraska in the late 1980s, according to the university’s Web page.