Fugitive phoney Florida doctor nabbed

[Champ]

MIAMI (Reuters) - Police in Belize have arrested a Florida fugitive described by detectives as a fake doctor who drugged his cosmetic surgery patients with an animal anaesthetic and left a male bodybuilder with female breast implants.



Reinaldo Silvestre, 63, was arrested in Belize City, where he was teaching and practising medicine, the U.S. State Department said on Friday.


Silvestre fled after Miami Beach police charged him in 1999 with fraud, aggravated battery, practising medicine without a license and grand theft in connection with botched surgeries that left his patients permanently disfigured.


Police got a tip Silvestre was in Belize and U.S. Embassy officials worked with police in the Central American nation who arrested him. Silvestre was jailed pending extradition to Florida, said Ed Moreno, special agent in Miami with the Bureau of Diplomatic Security.

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