MIAMI _Magaly Del Rosario built a pile of lies about the build-a-butt injections she helped give as an assistant at Bella Beauty Spa in Miami.
Del Rosario helped lie to the government and DHL about the silicone smuggled in from Colombia for the injections. She lied to the women being injected about what the silicone was and its permanence. She lied about Bella Beauty owner Maribel Jimenez's non-existent qualifications to perform this procedure.
For those falsehoods, admitted in court documents by Del Rosario, the 48-year-old was sentenced to four years and eight months in federal prison Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams on conspiracy and smuggling charges. That's a year and 11 months less prison time than Jimenez received in August.
Over at least 160 shipments from 2008 through 2015, the two women received pure silicone oil from Colombia in bottles labeled "depilatory wax."
The Food & Drug Administration's website says, "The FDA has NOT approved liquid silicone or silicone gel for injection to fill wrinkles or augment tissues anywhere in the body."
That's because silicone can cause a host of problems, including pulmonary embolisms, kidney malfunctions, infections and can even seep into the skin. The removal can be just as dangerous. Miami radio host Betty Pino died in 2013 of complications from silicone-removal surgery.
But silicone injections tend to be cheaper to provide. That attracts customers who choose to ignore the risk for the money saved. At the other end of the needle, using silicone instead of a legal substance increases the profit margin.
Especially if the customer doesn't know silicone's being used instead of a legal substance.
Instead, Del Rosario and Jimenez told customers they were injecting "hyaluronic acid" or "hydrogel" that was like Juvederm or Restylane, used to fill out lips and smooth faces wrinkled by time and sun.
"Despite the fact that I repeatedly and consistently informed Bella Beauty's buttocks augmentation clients that they would be injected with a substance that was safe, non-permanent and capable of being absorbed or excreted by the body over time, I knew this not to be the case," Del Rosario admitted in court documents.
She told women this though she'd undergone surgery in 2014 to have some of the permanent silicone in her own butt removed.
