Buttocks builders face murder charges

Lying on her stomach in September 2019, Karissa Rajpaul held her cellphone out in selfie mode and panned up to record a cosmetic procedure to enhance her buttocks. She was getting her second round of illegal filler injections, police told KCAL.

But something went wrong during her third session the following month. The two women who allegedly performed the procedure in their home without medical licences called 911 and then fled, the Los Angeles Police Department said in a news release.

Rajpaul, 26, was rushed to the hospital. She died in the emergency room from multiple silicone embolisms.

The LAPD announced Tuesday that the two women who performed the procedure — Libby Adame, 51, and her 23-year-old daughter, Alicia Galaz — have been charged with murder. The duo was arrested on Aug. 5 in Riverside, Calif. It is unclear who is representing them.

Law enforcement announced the arrests this week as part of an effort to locate additional victims.

Police allege that Adame and Galaz have been performing illicit buttocks augmentations out of their home since 2012, charging nearly US$14,000 for three silicone injection sessions, according to KCAL.

The injections, which police said in a news release consisted of “an uncontained, liquid silicone substance,” were administered directly into clients’ buttocks to make them “look fuller.” The method is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration and has been outlawed throughout the U.S., police said. Licensed medical professionals instead use fat injections or silicone implants, which have a gel consistency and are contained in a shell.

“The consequence of injecting uncontained silicone into the body is that it can enter the blood stream and create embolisms, which can result in serious illness or death,” police said.

The FDA has warned that the procedure is dangerous and can lead to death. But operations like the one run by the mother-daughter duo are not uncommon. In 2015, a Maryland woman died after getting the injections in a fake plastic surgeon’s office in Queens, N.Y., police said.

In an interview with GQ in 2018, rapper Cardi B said she paid US$800 to receive a procedure in a basement apartment, also in Queens, to enhance her buttocks.

Rajpaul, who moved to Los Angeles from South Africa to pursue a career in the adult film industry, died on Oct. 15, 2019, of silicone embolisms in the heart, brain and kidneys, LAPD Detective Robert Dinlocker told KCAL. His colleague, Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton, told KABC that the suspects were using materials “that clearly are not appropriate for any medical procedure that would be performed on a human.”

Adame and Galaz were released soon after their arrests. Their bonds were set at US$1 million each.