SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - United States Magistrate Judge Camille Vélez-Rivé authorized a complaint charging Juan Carlos Pérez-Camacho, 43, a Colombian national for offering dental services without a license to practice dentistry in the U.S. Pérez-Camacho was arrested in Carolina for misusing his visa to perform dentistry work, as well as causing the prescription drug Xylocaine to be misbranded as he was not a practitioner licensed to practice medicine in Puerto Rico, announced W. Stephen Muldrow, U.S. Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), working together with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA), Office of Criminal Investigations, the U.S. Department of State’s (DOS) Diplomatic Security Service (DSS), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (UCIS), U.S. and Customs and Border Protection (CPB), and the Puerto Rico Police Department (PRPD), working under the Caribbean Anti-Money Laundering Alliance (CMLA), conducted the investigation the spurred the arrest of Pérez-Camacho.
According to the criminal complaint Pérez-Camacho, a national of Colombia, has been illegally practicing dentistry in Puerto Rico since approximately 2018. The charging document also alleges that he provided cosmetic dental services to multiple patients as an unlicensed individual and that he violated the terms of his non-immigrant visa for illegally working in the U.S.
Pérez-Camacho was charged with violations to Title 18, United States Code (USC), sections 1001 (false statements) and 1546 (fraud and misuse of visa, permits, and other documents; and Title 21, USC, Section 331(k), 352(f)(1), 353(b)(1), and 333 (a)(1) and (2), misbranding.
Special Litigation Counsel José Ruiz-Santiago is in charge of the prosecution of the case. The defendant was transferred to Guaynabo Metropolitan Detention Center awaiting the outcome of his case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
