{"id":316165,"date":"2026-06-22T22:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T22:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/316165\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T22:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T22:13:08","slug":"backyard-botox-why-florida-has-become-a-hotspot-for-illegal-practices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/316165\/","title":{"rendered":"BACKYARD BOTOX: Why Florida has become a hotspot for illegal practices"},"content":{"rendered":"

STUART, Fla. \u2014 Florida has more cases of cosmetic procedures performed by unlicensed individuals than any other state, according to a National Institutes of Health review <\/a>\u2014 as two Treasure Coast residents in two separate cases were recently sentenced for performing cosmetic procedures without a license. <\/p>\n

Friday, Adley DaSilva, the Stuart man found guilty of performing cosmetic surgery<\/a> without a license, was sentenced to 45 years in prison<\/a> by a St Lucie County judge. <\/p>\n

WATCH OUR REPORT: <\/p>\n

Why are so many unlicensed cosmetic procedures happening in Florida?<\/p>\n

DaSilva was one of four people<\/a> facing charges related to botched cosmetic procedures at the now-closed Cosmetica Plastic Surgery and Anti-Aging in Port St. Lucie, which left patients<\/a> with scars and “mental anguish.”<\/p>\n

A jury found him guilty of racketeering, aggravated battery and practicing medicine without a license after a week-long trial in May.<\/p>\n

“This case is about greed \u2014 vanity,” a prosecutor said. <\/p>\n

On June 3, Rosa Mena, 50, was sentenced <\/a>to three years in prison and five years of probation after being convicted of running an illegal med spa out of a backyard shed. <\/p>\n

A victim came to police in May 2025 and reported concerns<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Those are two of at least eight investigations WPTV found into unlicensed cosmetic procedures recorded in Florida in the past five years, with six of them occurring since 2024.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Port St Lucie<\/p>\n

Unlicensed med spa leaves victim with facial paralysis<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

“It’s always a question of dollars. How can I do this cheaper?” said Dr. John Berman, a Boca Raton plastic surgeon. <\/p>\n

Berman said he is seeing more patients seeking help for botched cosmetic procedures performed by people with no license. He says increased social media pressure is helping drive demand.<\/p>\n

“They go to TikTok, they go to Instagram, and they see an absolutely beautiful presentation,” Berman said.<\/p>\n

Berman said year-round beach weather, appearance pressures and a growing medical tourism industry are creating a dangerous combination, specifically in Florida. <\/p>\n

“They have a demand for the product more so here than anywhere else in the country,” Berman said. “They like the look, they want it, and they think they can get a Ford to do what a Ferrari does, and I don’t think that’s a realistic expectation.” <\/p>\n

The consequences can be devastating. In the Mena case, a Port St. Lucie woman suffered facial paralysis after receiving the “backyard Botox” in a shed. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Port St Lucie<\/p>\n

Backyard Botox case has neighbors asking: ‘Who would go into a shed’?<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Witnesses in the DaSilva case described scarring and emotional trauma. <\/p>\n

In Miami, a 28-year-old mother died at an unlicensed cosmetic recovery home, <\/a>prompting an investigation that found<\/a> 25 cosmetic procedure-related deaths in Florida over the past three-and-a-half years.<\/p>\n

Florida lawmakers have introduced new legislation <\/a>to increase penalties for some unlicensed recovery clinics.<\/p>\n

Former Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg says the question is not whether Florida needs more laws \u2014 but whether existing ones are being enforced.<\/p>\n

“You have to take it seriously \u2014 and so \u2014 I think the laws are there on the books. I don’t think we need new laws. We just need to make sure we enforce the laws that are already there,” Aronberg said.<\/p>\n

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STUART, Fla. \u2014 Florida has more cases of cosmetic procedures performed by unlicensed individuals than any other state,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[131399,130468,3858,171,173,172,131400,3857],"class_list":["post-316165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-cosmetic-procedures","tag-cosmetic-surgery","tag-investigations","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news","tag-unlicensed-cosmetic-surgery","tag-wptv-investigates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}