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ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A Front Royal woman who acted as the ringleader of a decade-long oxycodone distribution network was sentenced Wednesday to seven years in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
According to court documents, Candie Marie Calix, 40, worked as an office manager for a physician in Arlington who prescribed her and her relatives over 45,000 oxycodone pills between 2012 and 2022.
The drug lord recruited at least 12 people she knew from around Front Royal to be "patients," and obtain large quantities of the pills.
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In exchange for 15-mg pills, the patients – who Calix knew were addicts – would give the 30-mg pills they were prescribed back to her to sell. The U.S. Attorney's Office said the group would use code names for the pills such as "tickets," "blueberries," and "muffins."
At one point, court docs show Calix and her co-conspirators were earning at least $5,000 per month in profits. As part of a money judgment, she agreed to hand over more than half a million dollars of earnings.