Guilty plea in injections case
She promised a “buttocks enhancement” using a topquality Swiss product injected by a trained cosmetologist for the bargain price of $1,000.
But federal authorities said the vials the woman illegally smuggled into the U.S. in her suitcase on a flight from Lima, Peru to Broward County just contained silicone with fake labels that claimed it was much more expensive hyaluronic acid.
On Tuesday in federal court in Fort Lauderdale, Teresa Nunez Orrego, 46, tearfully pleaded guilty to a federal charge of introducing a misbranded drug or medical device into the U.S.
Also concealed in her luggage were large hypodermic needles, syringes and vials of lidocaine to make the painful procedure tolerable, according to agents from the Food and Drug Administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement who investigated the case.
“This is my first time in a courthouse,” Nunez told U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom during the court hearing. “And I apologize
for everything.”
Handcuffed, shackled and dressed in blue jail scrubs, Nunez quietly sobbed and frequently paused to compose herself as she answered the judge’s questions.
She told the judge she was a teacher in her native Peru prior to her arrest. Her lawyer said she also trained as a cosmetologist in Belgium where she once lived with her husband.
“I do body therapy — everything that’s related to body recovery,” Nunez said in Spanish, through an interpreter.
Nunez was arrested May 15 during an appointment with a new “client” at the Hallandale Beach apartment of a woman, who prosecutors said acted as a scheduler and allowed her home to be used for the procedures.
What Nunez did not know was that her newest “client” was an undercover federal agent who pretended she wanted “a buttocks enhancement injection,” according to court records.
Federal prosecutors said Nunez was caught on her second trip to Broward County and had only performed one procedure here in February.
Agents began investigating after they were tipped off by a friend of the client who reported the illegal procedure to them. Agents called the scheduler and set up an appointment for Nunez’s next South Florida visit.
When Nunez’s flight from Lima landed at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in May, agents secretly searched her luggage and examined the silicone, lidocaine and syringes before placing the suitcase on the baggage carousel.
Agents
then
followed Nunez and her friend, who picked her up at the airport, to the Hallandale Beach apartment. Two undercover agents returned the next day for the “injection” appointment.
Nunez, who will remain locked up without bond, faces a maximum of three years in federal prison when she is sentenced Aug. 27. She could also face a fine of as much as $250,000.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Outerbridge said Nunez told the undercover agents that she was running a risk every time she smuggled the product into the U.S. He said she told clients she was providing a highquality “injectable dermal filler” that could not be legally obtained in the U.S. but claimed she was able to specially order a superior product from Switzerland that was legal in Europe.
In court records, federal agents said they have been investigating illegal providers of cosmetic enhancements “due to the increasing number of instances in which Iaw enforcement agencies have been informed of serious injury, serious medical complications, and deaths of individuals who have undergone illegal injections of filler material into their buttocks region.”
Many of the procedures are illegally performed in hotel rooms and residences by poorly trained or untrained individual using products that are not approved by the FDA, authorities said.
pmcmahon@tribune.com, 954-356-4533 or Twitter @SentinelPaula