Miami woman jailed for running illegal surgery recovery homes charged with theft

There’s nothing new about Torrasha Smith being accused of operating an illegal surgery recovery center in a South Miami-Dade house. Wednesday’s arrest made four of a kind for Smith, whose Dream Body Retreat caters to women receiving Brazilian butt lifts, tummy tucks, breast jobs and other procedures at one of Miami’s many office surgery centers.

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The new part of Miami-Dade vs. Smith IV: fraud and theft charges.

“(Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office investigators) received information anonymously that Ms. Smith finally ceased operations sometime in February, however, after Jan. 28, 2026, Ms. Smith continued to book and receive deposits from patients without any intention of providing services,” reads the affidavit for arrest warrant by MDSO Det. Lynda Cowgill.

So, in just this latest case, Smith faces one count of organized fraud of over $50,000; three counts of grand theft; and 274 counts of running an assisted living facility without a license. From a related July case, she’s charged with felony littering, felony hazardous waste violation, failure to track biomedical waste and nuisances injuries to health.

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When arrested Wednesday, Smith was out on bond from previous arrests in still-pending cases. As Miami-Dade Bond Court Judge Mindy Glazer set Smith’s bond at $22,500, she noted that the state told Smith to stop operating the unlicensed recovery center in April 2025.

Smith appeared to cry and wipe her face during the bond court hearing. As of Sunday, she remained at Miami-Dade Corrections’ Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

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The alleged homes of Dream Body Retreat

By Florida law, office surgery centers can’t keep a patient for more than 24 hours from the time the patient arrives for an elective cosmetic or plastic surgery. Patients who aren’t well enough to be discharged have to be sent to a hospital. Most patients, however, can be discharged. They’re the recovery center customer base.

Recovery center usually operate out of houses, sometimes hotels designed for extended stay. They advertise on social media with phone numbers, rarely addresses. Few bother to get state licenses as assisted living facilities.

By Florida state statute, “’Assisted living facility’ means any building or buildings…regardless of whether operated for profit, which through its ownership or management provides housing, meals, and one or more personal services for a period exceeding 24 hours to one or more adults who are not relatives of the owner or administrator.”

The unlicensed recovery center underworld ranges from places that pamper patients with space and very personal care by licensed medical professionals to places that cram patients into spaces minded by people with limited or no medical training. Hazardous waste saturated with blood and bodily fluids usually gets treated as regular garbage.

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Arrest paperwork says Smith operated Dream Body Retreat out of 18132 NW 91st Ct., a two-floor, four-bedroom, three-bathroom, 2,878-foot house, when first arrested on Jan. 11, 2024. Police say they found seven patients in the home, each of whom had been charged $300 per night.

Smith was charged with operating an unlicensed assisted living facility, felony hazardous waste violation and felony Florida litter law violation. A later arrest for operating an unlicensed assisted living facility, this one in a four-bedroom, three-bathroom house at 13162 SW 191st Terr., was folded into the earlier case.

Smith completed a pre-trial intervention program, so all charges were dropped in March 2025.

Three months later, June 2025, Smith was back in handcuffs after, MDSO said, she kept operating Dream Body at 21480 SW 132nd Ct. despite a Notice of Unlicensed Operations from the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration left there in April 2025.

The latest arrest followed a Crime Stoppers tip in January that Smith was still doing business at the Southwest 132nd Court house, a 3,220-sq. ft., four-bedroom, three-bathroom home.

A For Sale sign was planted in front of the home in April.

Where’s the fraud and theft?

Each day that an unlicensed ALF remains in operation after notice from the AHCA counts as a third degree felony, which is why prosecutors are charging Smith with 274 counts of running an unlicensed ALF. Investigators say financial transaction records show Smith grossed over $200,000 during that time, thus the organized fraud over $50,000.

But, investigators also say a Massachusetts woman reached out to MDSO to say she sent Smith $2,000 via Zelle on Feb. 12, after Smith stopped business. Smith ghosted her, the Massachusetts woman said, when she asked for a refund.

Another woman said she sent Smith $1,200 for post-operative care after getting a Jan. 26 email detailing Dream Body’s prices.

But, when the woman got confirmed her surgery would be in March, “she attempted to contact Dream Body Retreat on Instagram and saw that the account was deactivated,” the arrest warrant said. “(She) attempted to contact Ms. Smith multiple times to obtain a refund and has been met with negative results.”

Another woman, MDSO said, told investigators she Zelled $1,800 to Smith after being told Dream Body had availability for her Mar. 13 surgery. Refund attempts failed, police said.

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