Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
District of Massachusetts

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, April 2, 2021

Defendant injected individuals with silicone oil, which can cause stroke, death or disfigurement

BOSTON – A North Andover woman pleaded guilty today in federal court in Boston to performing illegal silicone injections in exchange for money.

Gladys Araceli Ceron, 72, pleaded guilty to five counts of delivery for pay of an adulterated or misbranded medical device received in interstate commerce with the intent to defraud or mislead. U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns scheduled sentencing for Aug. 5, 2021. Ceron was charged by criminal complaint and arrested in May 2019. A federal grand jury subsequently returned an indictment.

From approximately 2004 to 2019, Ceron, who operated her business in Lawrence, performed illegal bodily injections using “gluteal material” that she obtained from a source in Florida. Lab tests of the material subsequently confirmed that it contained silicone oil – a substance that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warns can travel through blood vessels and cause a stroke, death or permanent disfigurement.

In 2018, Ceron agreed to perform buttock enhancing and facial injections for an individual. During a recorded meeting on May 24, 2018, Ceron told the individual that she charged $500 for buttock injections and $60 for each wrinkle-filling injection. A search of Ceron’s business in Lawrence the following month 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.

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

The charging statute provides for a sentence on each count 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.

Acting United States Attorney Nathaniel R. Mendell; Jeffrey J. Ebersole, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, Office of Criminal Investigations, New York Field Office; and Justin C. Fielder, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, Office of Criminal Investigations, Miami Field Office made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney Rachel Y. Hemani of Mendell’s Health Care Fraud Unit is prosecuting the case.

Topic(s):
Consumer Protection
Component(s):
USAO - Massachusetts