Jacksonville, FL — The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office is encouraging people to research their doctors as it announced the arrest of a 47-year-old man that investigators say was performing Botox treatments without the proper certifications to possess or administer Botox.
Earlier this month, JSO says it received a tip from another law enforcement agency about the suspect, Nelson Turin, leading to an investigation.
“Our detectives conducted an investigation and found several online videos showing Turin injecting clients with Botox and doing other treatments. He would do lip, chin, cheek fillers, nose lifts, as well as any other Botox-type of injections. As I mentioned, he had several of these videos on different social media outlets or on the Internet showing the services that he provided. One advertisement that our investigators found was an all-day ‘Botox and Bubbles’ event at a spa located on the 12000 block of San Jose Boulevard. What we learned through our investigation was that the Botox was for the clients, the bubbles, that was for the client and the doctor. Well, I say doctor loosely,” says Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Director Mike Bruno.
Bruno says the ‘bubbles’ at the event included champagne and Four Loko and that Turin would drink during patient consultations.
JSO says as part of the investigation, an undercover detective made an appointment on March 12th to discuss a treatment.
“During the consultation with our undercover detective, Turin was seen consuming alcoholic beverages. As I mentioned before, there was champagne and Four Loko in the room that he would partake in for the ‘Bubbles and Botox.’ Turin set up his injection kit, which contained the syringes, needles, and vials. It also had some illegible labels that had writing on them from foreign countries. He used a marker to identify the different areas on the detective’s face that would require the treatment, and, ultimately, prepared to do the treatment,” says Bruno.
Bruno says before Turin could actually do any treatment, other detectives came in and arrested him.
At the time of his arrest, Bruno says Turin was in possession of Botox, Lidocaine, and other treatment drugs that he is not authorized to have.
JSO says the charges that Turin faces include practicing or attempting to practice medicine without a valid medical license, three counts of possession of legend drugs without prescription with intent to sell or deliver, and leading the public to believe that one is a licensed medical doctor.
The sheriff’s office says the spa where this occurred is a legitimate business, but Turin presented himself to the owners as having the appropriate credentials and license.