Drug sting defendants still await penalties
BROOKSVILLE –
Christina Ann Malicoate had her mug shot in the newspaper Thursday, but it wasn’t the first time.
The woman accused of injuring and permanently scarring her husband by smashing a vase against his head had been one of the 30 or so suspected drug offenders arrested 10 months ago as part of the Operation Oxy-Blues sting conducted by the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office.
Then-Sheriff Richard Nugent called it the biggest organized prescription drug enterprises the agency had ever investigated.
It has since been surpassed in terms of organizational size, geography and number of circulated drugs, but the Oxy-Blues case remains active in the court system. At least a half-dozen defendants still either need to be tried or sentenced.
One of them, Troy Bracewell, is the accused ringleader. If convicted of his charge of continuing a criminal enterprise, he could be sentenced to a maximum of life in prison. His next hearing is scheduled for May 5 in Hernando County Circuit Court.
“Since there are trials pending for Bracewell … we are restricted from talking about the cases,” said Sgt. Donna Black, a sheriff’s spokeswoman.
Malicoate was serving probation for her trafficking conviction, but returned to jail Tuesday following her domestic assault arrest.
Another defendant, Jandi Lynn Valentine, was sentenced earlier this month to 15 years in prison on a conspiracy to traffic charge, according to court records.
Black said the 26-year-old Valentine was found guilty of organizing people to “walk scripts,” or fraudulently acquire prescription medication.
More specifically, she would send someone to a pharmacy with a fake prescription and if the pharmacist called the number listed on the prescription for verification, the call would go to Valentine’s cell phone, according to the sheriff’s office.
Court records show Valentine, thus far, has received the stiffest penalty. Others have received sentencing ranging from three years probation to three-and-a-half years in prison.
The suspects in the case were accused of reproducing scads of fake scripts to acquire commonly prescribed pills, mostly oxycodone.
The investigation kicked off in February 2010 after the suspects used the name of a Tampa doctor who rarely signs oxycodone prescriptions, according to the sheriff’s office.
The bulk of the arrests came soon after an undercover informant purchased pills from someone in the organization two months later.
Bracewell, the accused ringleader, had been out of prison for about a year when he was arrested last May, deputies said.
The requirements for a continuing a criminal enterprise charge is to have three felony charges linked to a defendant and at least five people under his or her control, according to Florida law.
Reporter Tony Holt can be reached at 352-544-5283 or [email protected].
