Two Miamians Arrested for Running Fake Dental Clinic on a Bus

How desperate are people for dental care in Miami-Dade County? Apparently so desperate that two locals were able to operate a dental clinic out of a bus and a white Toyota hatchback SUV in a parking lot a few feet from State Road 836. Miami-Dade County Police announced today they arrested 37-year-old Daniela Sulbaran Gonzalez and 44-year-old Victor Bernal for allegedly operating an unlicensed bus dentistry service.

According to arrest reports, MDPD's Economic Crimes Bureau received a tip from the Florida Department of Health about the clinic. Two undercover operatives posed as patients and scheduled appointments November 15 with the two fake dentists. The cops arrived at the gated parking lot at 6001 NW 74th Ave. and met Sulbaran outside.

The dentists then ushered undercover cops into a car and drove past the gate. From there, Bernal told them to get on the bus while he retrieved his medical gear from the trunk of his Toyota.

Bernal returned with one blue and one brown bag. Police say he placed the bags at the rear of the bus. At another end, the pair had installed a dental chair. A cop sat down, and Sulbaran put on surgical gloves and a face mask. She placed a dental bib around the officer's neck and proceeded to diagnose him and offer an unspecified treatment. Once the exam was complete, MDPD says, it initiated a "takedown notice" and stormed onto the bus. The pair was arrested without incident.

"The bus was inventoried prior to being towed and, in plain view, the aforementioned blue bag was located at the rear of the bus," the arrest report states. "The blue bag contained various prescription drugs which included Lidocaine, Mepivacaine, Ibuprofen 600, and miscellaneous dental products."

Neither Dulbaran nor Bernal had licenses to practice dentistry, according to the police report.

This isn't the first back-alley medical practice in Miami-Dade history. The county has something of an issue with bootleg procedures: In 2011, a fake doctor, Oneal Morris, was arrested for injecting a cocktail of cement, superglue, mineral oil, and Fix-a-Flat canned tire inflator into a woman's butt. Morris later pleaded guilty.