Lawyer to Missionaries Held in Haiti Under Investigation As Leader of Sex Trafficking Ring

The case of 10 missionaries in Haiti has taken another twist. While we understand that folks in Haiti must be besides themselves right now, we hope that these new allegations will shed some insights into why anti-child-trafficking laws exist and why the question of ‘who monitors the Christians on their mission?’ is a valid one.

This Laura Silsby case of breaking the rules of obtaining proper paperwork to transport children has probably done more to shed the spotlight on orphanages and Christian adoptions than any other case in recent memory.

While studying the details and cross-checking ourselves, here are two views of events in Haiti:

Adviser to Detained Americans in Haiti Is Investigated NYTimes

Baptists’ legal adviser target of trafficking inquiry Idaho Statesman

There’s no qualitative difference between the two articles, except that the NYTimes has more detail. As always we compliment the Idaho Statesman on their excellent reporting in this case.

Photo: Lynsey Addario for The New York TimesIt’s alleged that the man Jorge Puello, who has been providing legal advice to the jailed missionaries, is being investigated in El Salvador for leading a trafficking ring involving Central American and Caribbean women and girls.

The adviser Jorge Puello, says that the accusation is a case of mistaken identity, saying that his name in Latin America is a common as John Smith in America.

When advised of the investigation in El Salvador, the Haitian judge presiding over the case of the 10 American missionaries and who recommended yesterday that the group be releaased from prison but remain in Haiti, as the case proceeds, announced that he will begin an investigation in Haiti.

Mr Puello says that he is possibly confused as a Colombian drug dealer who was arrested with 25 IDs, one with his name.

More pertinent statements in the NYTimes story, also referenced by the Idaho Statesman.

The head of the Salvadoran border police, Commissioner Jorge Callejas, said in a telephone interview that he was investigating accusations that a man with a Dominican passport that identified him as Jorge Anibal Torres Puello led a human trafficking ring that recruited Dominican women and under-age Nicaraguan girls by offering them jobs and then putting them to work as prostitutes in El Salvador.

Mr. Puello said he did not even have a passport. When Mr. Callejas was shown a photograph taken in Haiti of Mr. Puello, Mr. Callejas said he thought it showed the man he was seeking. He said he would try to arrest Mr. Puello on suspicion of luring women into prostitution and taking explicit photographs of them that were then posted on Internet sites. “It’s him, the same beard and face,” Mr. Callejas said in an interview on Thursday. “It has to be him.”

Judge Saint-Vil also said he thought that the photo of the trafficking suspect in a Salvadoran police file appeared to be the same man he had met in court. He said he intended to begin his own investigation into whether a trafficking suspect had been working with the Americans detained in Haiti.

In addition:

There are questions about Mr. Puello’s credentials to practice law. He’s not listed at the College of Lawyers in the Dominican Republic.

Mr. Puello says he’s part of a 45-member law firm in the Dominican Republic, but people who viewed the location in a humble place, say ‘no way’.

Saying that he’s president of the Sephardic Jewish community in the Dominican Republic, Mr. Puello said in an interview (with the NYT???) that he wasn’t charging the families.

Yet the families say they wired Mr. Puello $12,000 and were told late Tuesday that an additional $36,000 was needed.  Mr. Puello says the call didn’t happen.

One lawyer for the families said Mr. Puello was supposedly licensed to practice law in Florida, but that’s not true.

The report said the police had found documents connected to the Sephardic Jewish community in a house in San Salvador where the traffickers had held women.

The New York Times has broken a bombshell here. It was clear earlier in the week that they are investigating this entire topic very thoroughly.

Blake Schmidt contributed reporting from San José, Costa Rica, and Jean-Michel Caroit from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Kitty Bennett contributed research.