Ex-adviser to Americans detained in Haiti was charged in US in immigrant smuggling ring

Ex-adviser to detained Americans charged in US

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — The fugitive former legal adviser to a group of Americans detained in Haiti on child kidnapping charges said he has been indicted in the U.S. in an immigrant smuggling case.

U.S. Marshals say they are hunting for Jorge Puello, who was already being pursued by authorities in the Dominican Republic on an Interpol warrant out of El Salvador, where police say he led a ring that lured young women and girls into prostitution. He also had an outstanding warrant for a U.S. parole violation.

Puello — who surged into the spotlight by providing food, medicine and legal assistance to the 10 Americans jailed in Haiti — acknowledged in a phone interview with The Associated Press Tuesday that he is named in a 2003 federal indictment out of Vermont that accuses him of smuggling illegal immigrants from Canada into the United States.

The 32-year-old, identified as Jorge Torres in the indictment, was living in Canada at the time and managed to avoid arrest. He says he is innocent of the accusations, claiming he was working undercover for U.S. authorities at the time. Law enforcement officials said they hadn’t yet confirmed the Puello is Torres but the case is open.

“Mr. Torres was a fugitive in Canada and the United States has requested his extradition,” said Tristram Coffin, the U.S. Attorney for Vermont. “We’ve always been interested in him. We remain interested in fugitives when they flee.”

Puello, as he has been known most recently, called the AP to discuss his case and said he was in Panama and preparing to return to El Salvador to fight the charges against him there. His whereabouts could not be confirmed.

“The whole world will know I am innocent,” he said.

Dominican police, working with Interpol, and U.S. authorities are questioning his acquaintances as they search for him.

“We are on the hunt,” said Steve Blando, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service in Washington.

The growing legal troubles for Puello have become a distraction for the detained Americans and those trying to secure their release. The Baptist missionaries were accused of trying to remove 33 children from Haiti without authorization following the Jan. 12 earthquake.

Lawyers for the missionaries told the AP that a a judge could rule on their request for provisional release as early as Wednesday after he receives a prosecutor’s recommendation.

One of the jailed Americans, Charisa Coulter of Boise, Idaho, was taken to a field hospital Wednesday. Coulter is a diabetic and has received medical treatment since her arrest last month. Her condition was not immediately known.

A lawyer for nine of the defendants, Aviol Fleurant, complained that Haitian police were restricting his visits to the Americans. “The lawyers are only being allowed in for three or five minutes,” he said.

Fleurant also has accused Puello of absconding with most the fee relatives of the Americans gave the Dominican to pay him.

“He was supposed to give me $40,000 and he gave me $10,000 and he stole $30,000 and he disappeared,” said Aviol Fleurant.

Puello said he volunteered to help the missionaries and had never met any of them before they were detained in Haiti.

Sean Lankford, whose wife and daughter are among the detained, has said Puello — who was born in the U.S. but has deep ties to the Dominican Republic — contacted relatives of the Americans by calling their church, Central Valley Baptist in Meridian, Idaho, after they were arrested on Jan. 29. He brought food and medicine to the prisoners and helped them find a Haitian lawyer.

Puello’s involvement with the Americans began to unravel when authorities in El Salvador noted his resemblance to the suspect in the sex trafficking case. He acknowledged on Monday that he is in fact the suspect but said he was wrongly accused and will fight the charges.

Puello was convicted of theft of U.S. government property in 1999 in Pennsylvania and sentenced to 6 months in prison and 5 years probation, according to court documents. In 2001, a court found he violated the terms of his probation and issued a warrant for his arrest.

Authorities in the Central American country disclosed more details about the case Tuesday. The deputy investigations director of El Salvador’s police, Howard Augusto Cotto, said Puello would be detained once he steps foot in El Salvador on charges of leading a trafficking ring dedicated to prostituting Central American and Caribbean girls and women.

Cotto said Salvadoran police discovered the operation after three Nicaraguan girls escaped from a home and sought help at the Nicaraguan embassy. Police found two Dominican women and two more Nicaraguan girls at the home along with a credit card and documents in Puello’s name.

Associated Press writers Wilson Ring in Burlington, Vermont; Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia; Diego A. Mendez in San Salvador; Frank Bajak in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and Mike Melia in San Juan, Puerto Rico, contributed to this report.