Former pharmacy owner

guilty of drug possession

November 19-The owner of BC Drugs in Burien, which was suspended last month, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Seattle to unlawful possession of drugs.

Christina Wageman, 33, owned and operated BC Drugs in Burien before the state Board of Pharmacy suspended the pharmacy.

Federal prosecutors said Wageman removed controlled substances from the pharmacy inventory for her own use. They included oxycodone and hydrocodone.

Wageman will be sentenced on March 3. Unlawful possession of a controlled substance is a federal offense punishable by up to one year in prison.

According to charging papers filed with the court, Wageman took pills containing Xanax and Valium before leaving her pharmacy and concealed them in her purse.

A search of her purse by law enforcement following her departure from the pharmacy uncovered about 450 pills. The substances were possessed by Wageman without a valid prescription.

SeaTac

Drug, weapons violations

land gang leader in prison

November 16-A SeaTac gang leader was sentenced to 20 years in a federal prison for drug trafficking and weapons violations.

Albert Barrientes, 33, asked U.S. District Judge John Coughenour for leniency before he was sentenced.

But Coughenour denied Barrientes request, noting, "Twenty years has a nice ring to it."

Federal prosecutors called Barrientes "a violent man" who has 28 convictions and 22 other arrests, and branded him "a career criminal."

According to charging papers filed with the court, Barrientes was a leader of the Southside Locos, a local affiliate of the Suenos 13 gang, who trafficked in methamphetamine out of his home.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Greenberg told the judge that Barrientes received only a three-year sentence for a 1996 shooting of rival gang members near Pike Place Market.

Compiled by Ralph Nichols