Man sentenced in pharmacy burglary scheme
Published 3:11 pm Friday, January 18, 2008
A Shoreline man was sentenced Jan. 11 in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 57 months in prison and three years of supervised release for conspiracy to distribute pharmaceutical controlled substances and to being a user of methamphetamine in possession of a firearm. Colin D. Walmsley is one of more than two dozen people charged and convicted in connection with a large pharmacy burglary ring that stole narcotics and distributed them in the Snohomish County region. He pleaded guilty Sept. 6, 2007.
Walmsley, 32, received thousands of pills between 2004 and 2006, from individuals involved in the pharmacy burglary ring, according to a press release. He received and distributed quantities of oxycodone, morphine, and methadone among other known controlled substances. On some occasions he attempted to assist in the pharmacy burglaries, but his main participation was in the sale and distribution of the stolen drugs.
Walmsley sold the pills largely out of his residence in Snohomish County. Searches of his home in Shoreline resulted in the recovery of drugs that the defendant was using and distributing and firearms that he possessed. Walmsley was in possession of firearms during the same time that he was using methamphetamine according to the release.
In addition, Walmsley admitted that during November 2005, he and another of the pharmacy burglars broke into a GameStop video store at 1402 164th Street SW. in Lynnwood, and stole computer game equipment.
At sentencing Walmsley said, “Drugs have ruined three plus years of my life … I am looking forward to getting out of prison and beginning life sober.”
Chief Judge Lasnik reiterated that the harm from Walmsley’s drug dealing was not just to him and his children.
“There are other children out there who were not getting proper care because their parents were strung out on meth or the other drugs you supplied,” Judge Lasnik said.
The case was investigated by Shoreline Police Department, King County Sheriff’s Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
