Front Royal woman gets seven years in prison for her ringleader role in drug distribution ring

Candie Marie Calix, 40, of Front Royal, was sentenced to seven years in prison on Wednesday for her role as a ringleader of an oxycodone distribution network. She pleaded guilty in June.

Calix worked as an office manager for an Arlington physician who prescribed her nearly 40,000 oxycodone 30-milligram pills and more than 9,000 oxycodone 15-milligram pills over a 10-year-period. The doctor also prescribed similar quantities to Calix’s relatives and acquaintances who were working with her to distribute the pills.

“These quantities were far in excess of therapeutic doses, and Calix personally distributed or directed others to distribute most of the pills,” a U.S. Attorney’s Office Eastern District of Virginia news release stated.

Prosecutors said that she recruited at least 12 people in the Front Royal area to be “patients” of the doctor and obtain large quantities of oxycodone. Those “patients”, who included her mother, grandparents, great-grandmother, brother, and husband, then kicked some of the pills back to Calix to redistribute. Prosecutors say the Calix recruited people whom she knew to be already addicted to opiates.

Calix and her accomplices sold some of the pills for $25 apiece, earning at least $5,000 a month. She has agreed to a money judgment of more than $500,000, representing the proceeds she realized during the conspiracy.

Jessica D. Aber, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Wayne A. Jacobs, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office Criminal Division, made the announcement after Wednesday’s sentencing by Senior U.S. District Judge Anthony J. Trenga.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine E. Rumbaugh prosecuted the case.

Trio of Front Royal women plead guilty to oxycodone distribution ring