Smells Fishy

Lawyer in Haiti Trafficking Case a Pimp?

Judge, police seek information on prostitution ring.

The American missionaries accused of child trafficking for trying to take 33 children out of Haiti may have a legal adviser representing them in the Dominican Republic who is wanted in El Salvador. The Salvadoran police suspect the lawyer, Jorge Puello, of leading a ring that deals in Central American and Caribbean women and girls, offering them jobs and then forcing them into prostitution in El Salvador. Puello said it was a case of mistaken identity, that his name was common in Latin America, that a Colombian drug dealer arrested with 25 IDs had one bearing his name, that his accusers should "bring the proof." The Commissioner of the Salvadoran police and presiding Haitian judge said that Puello looked like a Salvadoran file photo of the trafficking suspect, and the judge is launching his own investigation into the matter. Other tidbits about Puello don't check out. He says he has a law license, but records at the College of Lawyers in the Dominican Republic don't list his name; he said he's part of a 45-member firm, but his Santo Domingo office is too tiny to fit that many lawyers.