A woman illegally made $3,000 per day off women in a Kendall house, arresting cops say
A Kendall homeowner registered her post-operation recovery house with the state as a business. But that recovery house doesn’t have a license, according to Miami-Dade police and a check of other state records.
So, Oasis Recovery Center’s Monica Garcia was arrested after Miami-Dade police medical crimes unit detectives followed an employee driving Smart Plastic Surgery patient to a home in West Kendall, according to an arrest report. Investigators say they found 12 women in post-op recovery at the house.
Garcia faces two counts of running an unlicensed assisted living facility, one count of hazardous waste violations, one count of felony littering, one count of public nuisance injurious to health and a bio waste misdemeanor. Garcia was arrested Wednesday, released Thursday after posting $21,000 bond and has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
An arrest report says Garcia told Miami-Dade officers she “has been running recovery houses for a long time. She got into the business after a bad experience recovering from a cosmetic procedure.”
The report said Garcia, 45, also told police that she’s working toward the facility being licensed. A check of the Florida Department of Health doesn’t turn up this Monica Garcia in Miami-Dade as a licensed registered nurse or a certified nursing assistant.
READ MORE: Here’s how to check your plastic surgery center, doctor or recovery center in Miami
A recovery house in Kendall
State records say Garcia registered Oasis Recovery Center Miami Inc. with the Florida Division of Corporations on June 30, 2021, and still lists 15960 SW 42nd Ter. as the business address. Miami-Dade property records say Garcia owns that place.
That’s where Miami-Dade police set up when they got a tip Garcia was using the house as an unlicensed post-operative recovery center, Oasis Eden or Oasis Recovery Center.
From the Southwest 42nd Terrace house, Miami-Dade medical crimes detectives say they followed a Honda Civic to Smart Plastic Surgery, 10700 SW 88th St. When the driver got there, she put plastic over the backseat as if it were a 1970s sofa. The driver then helped a woman leaving Smart Plastic Surgery out of her wheelchair and into the backseat, where she had the woman lie flat on her stomach.
The arrest report says the Honda Civic was followed to 2401 SW 143rd Ct., which county property records say is a four-bedroom, two-bathroom, 1,832-square foot corner house owned by Aselin Gomez (Gomez faces no charges). Police say the driver went through a gate off to the side of the front door and pulled the car into the backyard.
Detectives say they hung around until Garcia drove up in a white SUV. While they detained Garcia, they also went into the house and, the report says, they found “12 women in different stages of post-operative recovery.”
The women said they’d paid $250 a night for personal care including help with bathing, dressing, eating, going to the bathroom, personal hygiene and taking medication.
A search of the Agency for Health Care Administration turns up no assisted living facility license for either the Gomez house or the Garcia house.
