North Andover Woman Pleads Guilty to Performing Possibly Dangerous Silicone Injections

John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse. (Beyond My Ken, Creative Commons.))

A 72-year-old North Andover woman pleaded guilty Friday in federal court in Boston to performing and charging for potentially dangerous silicone injections.

Gladys Araceli Ceron administered 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. Ceron 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.

Ceron, who operated her business in Lawrence, was arrested in May 2019 and a federal grand jury later returned an indictment against her.

Acting U.S. Attorney Nathaniel R. Mendell’s office said from approximately 2004 to 2019, Ceron 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.

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

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.

Ceron faces a sentence of up to three years in prison on each count, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000.

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