North Philly woman convicted of smuggling opioids to son behind bars
Janette Ortiz secreted Suboxone to her son, who sold the drugs in state prison.
A North Philadelphia woman who smuggled opioids into a state prison for her inmate son to sell has been convicted of felony drug charges, Delaware County prosecutors said Friday.
Janette Ortiz, 52, was found guilty of drug delivery, possession of contraband, and related charges at a jury trial this month and is scheduled to be sentenced at a hearing on Aug. 20.
Prosecutors said Ortiz, who has two previous drug convictions, sneaked 20 strips of Suboxone to her son, Julio, during a visit at the State Correctional Institution at Chester in February of last year.
Julio Ortiz, 36, is serving a two-year sentence for an unrelated 2016 drug case, court records show.
Four days later, authorities at the prison searched Ortiz's cell and found 13 of the Suboxone strips hidden inside his headphones, according to the District Attorney's Office. Ortiz then confessed to investigators that he swallowed a box of the strips that his mother had given him, regurgitated them in his cell, and sold them to his fellow inmates for a profit, prosecutors said. He then transferred the money to his mother, they said.
Ortiz pleaded guilty to similar charges in January. He's since been transferred to the State Correctional Institution at Smithfield, according to prison records.