North Andover Woman Indicted For Performing Illegal Silicone Injections

BOSTON – A federal grand jury has indicted a North Andover woman in connection with offering illegal silicone injections in exchange for money. 

Gladys Araceli Ceron, 71, was indicted on four counts of delivery for pay of an adulterated or misbranded medical device received in interstate commerce with the intent to defraud or mislead. Ceron will appear before U.S. Magistrate Court Judge Donald L. Cabell on Aug. 8, 2019. Ceron was previously charged by criminal complaint on May 15, 2019.

According to the charging documents, Ceron, who operated her business in Lawrence, has been obtaining “gluteal material” from a source in Florida for over eight years. During a search executed at the source’s residence in 2016, plastic bottles of suspected cosmetic silicone fillers were sized. Lab tests subsequently confirmed that those fillers contained silicone oil, which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warns can travel through blood vessels and cause a stroke, death or permanent disfigurement.

In 2018, a cooperating witness working with agents began making recorded phone calls to Ceron in order to arrange for buttock enhancing and facial injections. During a recorded meeting on May 24, 2018, Ceron allegedly told the cooperating witness that she charges $500 for buttock injections and $60 for each wrinkle-filling injection. A search of Ceron’s business in Lawrence in June 2018 resulted in the seizure of several bottles and syringes of a substance that tests revealed to be silicone oil. Numerous uncapped, used, syringes were also recovered from the business.

The indictment further alleges that Ceron performed illegal injections to augment the buttock or fill wrinkles of three other women in exchange for money, and that she misled her victims about her qualifications, and the identity and safety of the material that she was injecting. 

Members of the public who believe they may be a victim of this crime should contact usama.VictimAssistance@usdoj.gov.

The charging statute provides for a sentence of up to three years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling; Derek Roy, Resident Agent in Charge of the Food and Drug Administration, Office of Criminal Investigations, Metro Washington Field Office; and Justin D. Green, Special Agent in Charge of the FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations’ Miami Field Office, made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorney Rachel Y. Hemani of Lelling’s Health Care Fraud Unit is prosecuting the case.

The details contained in the charging documents are allegations. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.