Human Predators Stalk Haiti's Vulnerable Kids

[Missizzy]

$1.00 US equals 36 DOP (Dominican Peso)

 

[i.b.nora]

Latest New York Times article on Jorge Puello:

Church Adviser May Have Warrant

By MARC LACEY and IAN URBINA
Published: February 13, 2010

"The man who was providing legal advice to the American church members arrested in Haiti may have a string of legal charges against him in the United States as well as a warrant for his arrest in El Salvador for sex trafficking, records show."

and

" Salvadoran police say they want to question Mr. Puello in connection with a sex trafficking ring that was broken up last year in which women and girls from Central America and the Caribbean were lured into prostitution through offers of modeling jobs. The suspect police are seeking is named Jorge Anibal Torres Puello, which Mr. Puello said was not his full name.

But Mr. Puello, who has denied any wrongdoing, said in an interview on Thursday that he was the president of an organization called the Sephardic Jewish Community in the Dominican Republic. Public records in the Dominican Republic indicate that on Nov. 1, 2007, that organization was registered to Jorge Anibal Torres Puello."

and

"Public records and court documents in the United States also indicate that a person with the same name and birth date is considered a fugitive and is wanted by the Miami police, the United States Customs and the United States Marshals Service."

and

"An order is listed in the United States national crime database for a man with that name and birth date to be arrested on sight and reported to United States immigration officials. Those records say he is wanted in connection with crimes including bank fraud in the United States and Canada, and theft of American government property. Police records say he has violated parole."

more . . .

 

[Missizzy]

And just why would someone who's avoiding a warrant on such serious charges seek out a case of international note? This gets stranger by the second. It's moved into the surreal IMO.

 

[Missizzy]

http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/fa...2/haredi-linked-to-human-trafficking-678.html

"Puello said he was part of a 45-member law firm. But his office in Santo Domingo turned out to be a humble place, which could not possibly fit 45 lawyers. Puello's brother Alejandro said the firm had another office in the central business district, but he declined to provide an address."

and

"Mr. Puello said that he had been born in Yonkers, N.Y., and that his mother was Dominican. He said that his full name was Jorge Puello and that he had no other names. But then in a subsequent interview he said his name was Jorge Aaron Bentath Puello. He said he was born in October 1976, and not in October 1977, which the police report indicates is the birth date of the suspect in the Salvadoran case.

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."

 

[i.b.nora]

On AC360 last night, they showed 3 photos, all of which looked remarkably similar.
One was the trafficker in El Salvador, one was Jorge Puello, the Baptist guy, and I am not sure who the third picture was of. Anyhow, I have been looking online ever since for a shot of those three and still can't find anything. Maybe someone else can.

 

[i.b.nora]

Attorneys, families of 6 of the 10 Americans say they don't know how Puello got involved

BY KATHLEEN KRELLER AND KATY MOELLER - Idaho Statesman
Published: 02/13/10

Now, no one knows anything about anything. Good grief!!!

"While investigators in the Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Florida look into Jorge Puello's past, the families and representatives of several of the 10 jailed Americans he has been working for say they don't know how he became their advocate in the ordeal."

much more ...

 

[Missizzy]

I have to admit that I'm always intrigued by the emigration and migration of cultural groups from one continent to another. I wanted to know more about how a Sephardic Jew happened to be practicing "law" in the Dominican Republic. I found lots of info on Sephardic Jews in Mexico and also this:

[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_the_Dominican_Republic[/ame]

Very interesting. What I can't quite grasp if why this particular man sought out the Baptists. I can't imagine that there's been many other situations quite like this one although that's what Mr. Puello alludes to:

".......he had been representing the Americans free of charge because he was a religious man who commiserated with their situation. “I’m president of the Sephardic Jewish community in the Dominican Republic,” he said. “I help people in this kind of situation. We’re not going to charge these people a dime.”

I want to be as respectful as possible, but is there actually a "president of the Sephardic Jewish Community"? Is that a paid, voluntary, or honorary position? Background checks required?

 

[Missizzy]

I'm afraid we've slipped down a rabbit hole somewhere, i.b.nora!!

 

[Missizzy]

Here's a link to an interesting forum questioning the link between Silsby and the resort town of Sosua. Does anyone remember reading where exactly the oceanfront hotel Silsby planned to rent was located? It's looking to me that Silsby met Puello when she went to the Dominican Republic last year. He not only was planning on renting her a hotel, he might have been planning some black market adoptions or trafficking. If he'd led her astray, of course he would use his wiles to try to dig her out of trouble so she couldn't pull him down.

http://www.dr1.com/forums/haiti-earthquake/100199-who-can-stop-tragedy-21.html

Here's a link (probably used for the Wikipedia article) about Sephardic Jews and their history in the town of Sosua, Dominican Republic:

http://www.indulgedtraveler.com/stories/sosua.html

 

[i.b.nora]

Izzy, you need to extend your search to somewhere in Canada for those Sephardic Jews, or maybe just to Yonkers? I dunno. Anyhow, here is the newest WSJ story.

Puello Probe Separate From Missionaries' Case

Some tiny bits of new stuff, this part is interesting:

"More evidence emerged on Saturday that Mr. Puello and Mr. Torres may be the same person. Isaac Rudman, the president of the Israelite Center of the Dominican Republic, said he once met Mr. Puello two or three years back. At the time, Mr. Puello introduced himself as Jorge Torres, and had a letter of introduction from a synagogue in Canada, Mr. Rudman said.

Mr. Rudman said he heard over the years that Mr. Puello had grandiose plans to build a hospital and a Jewish city close to Santo Domingo's airport, but nothing came from these plans.

Mr. Rudman's impression from his one meeting with Mr. Puello was that he was very "conflictive," he said. "His attitude was 'the Messiah has arrived'" said Mr. Rudman."

Jorge Puello and Laura Silsby are starting to look like two peas in a pod. There is more to the article.

 

[pinkpuddytat]

And just why would someone who's avoiding a warrant on such serious charges seek out a case of international note? This gets stranger by the second. It's moved into the surreal IMO.

I'm assuming he got involved with Silsby's scheme long before the arrests which turned it into a case of international note, because it offered him opportunities to make money both via real estate deals and by having an intermediary to feed him children for trafficking purposes (even if Silsby herself wouldn't have known what he was really doing with the children -- he could easily have presented her with a steady stream of phony Christian couples claiming to want to adopt). Then after they got arrested, he was stuck, because if he backed away or disappeared, he couldn't exercise any control over what Silsby or the others told authorities about him, and they'd be a lot more inclined to talk about him if Silsby felt like he'd ditched them -- like she could have claimed that HE had told her all the paperwork was taken care of, which would have sent both DR and Haitian officials looking for him as a suspect.

I think when he first went to Haiti to represent them in court, he really thought that given the post-earthquake chaos, he could get them sprung quickly by greasing a few palms. Serious miscalculation on his part. If Silsby's idiotic and illegal scheme ends up putting away a big-time trafficker of children/women for prostitution, it will be a heck of a silver lining. And no doubt all the dimwitted volunteers from the churches will use this to convince themselves that God wanted them to trust Silsby even though she was lying, because look at the wonderful result, saving lots of women and children from being trafficked into prostitution-slavery. And then they'll go right on trusting people who any sane person would know shouldn't be trusted.

Though I get the feeling Jim Allen isn't as dimwitted as the rest. He and his family seemed to figure out quickly that they shouldn't go along with the plan to have Puello represent him.

 

[pinkpuddytat]

Latest New York Times article on Jorge Puello:

Church Adviser May Have Warrant

From the same article:

"Alejandro Puello said in an interview on Saturday that Jorge had no law degree, did not work with him and was now missing."

Guess that answers my earlier "Where's Jorge?" question.

 

[Missizzy]

This is highly disturbing but worth a look to get a full overview of how much evil is going on right now in Haiti concerning the selling of children. Not my favorite news source but my hat's off to them for this little piece:

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/video/?videoId=2160_721979&videoChannel=NOTW:News

And with a simple handshake, a child is bought and sold.

 

[Missizzy]

A thread on Puello on the Dominican Republic forum. Might be interesting to follow. They also have a thread on Silsby which I linked to above. Here's the one on Puello:

http://www.dr1.com/forums/haiti-earthquake/100609-has-anyone-heard-jorge-puello.html

A snippet from yesterday from a poster named Porfio Rubirosa:

"Looks to me like Puello is a buscone (fixer) who had probably been hired previously by the Baptists (and perhaps other child traffickers savers) to work the DR-side of their enterprises. But the whole problem with this Idaho group is that they greased the DR side but ignored the Haiti side. Now the Haitians want their money, and the Baptists are having a hard time getting it to them because of the media attention and the probability that the intermediaries are taking it all.

Puello says he is "President" of the DR "Sephardic Jewish" community? That's interesting because I'm President of the equally large and influential DR Zoroaster community. I should do lunch with him some day."



I don't want to get in trouble for snatching posts but everyone really needs to give this forum a look. It seems to be expressly for English speaking people inside the country or with a connection to the country.

 

[i.b.nora]

From the WSJ article above, a new name:

"The group hoped to build an orphanage for as many as 200 children in Magante, on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. To that end, they incorporated New Life in the Dominican Republic in January through Jose Altagracia Ovando."

 

[Missizzy]

Pink--ITA with your "silver lining " theory. If we catch a major trafficker, all was because this was "God-appointed". Silsby will want us all to get back to church as she has a meeting to go to....in Liberia.

The big bummer is that it looks like Puello is getting away again. Talk about slippery. I wish they'd grabbed him when they had him in court.

 

[Texas Mist]

Here's some info on a pending warrant for Puello out of El Salvador...it's translated to English via Google Translate

<snip>

The Research Assistant Commissioner Howard Castaneda Augusto Cotto, today confirmed they are investigating the case of a Salvadoran man identified as Jorge Torres Orellana, who has a pending warrant for the crime of Trafficking in Persons and Sexual Exploitation.

..........

According to information, the Salvadoran Jorge Torres Orellana, according to the documents in our country, is the life partner Galvarina Ana Josefa, who was captured in May last year on charges of Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation, and who currently is imprisoned.

The Commissioner Cotto, assure you are getting the exchange of information through INTERPOL El Salvador and their counterparts in Washington to let us know that the sending of fingerprints to determine whether it is the same person

http://tinyurl.com/yb29jxf

 

[pinkpuddytat]

On AC360 last night, they showed 3 photos, all of which looked remarkably similar.
One was the trafficker in El Salvador, one was Jorge Puello, the Baptist guy, and I am not sure who the third picture was of. Anyhow, I have been looking online ever since for a shot of those three and still can't find anything. Maybe someone else can.

Try Google Image Search using various permutations (full and partial) of the versions of his name mentioned in the articles.

E.g. <jorge orellanas puello> (no quote marks) brings up this pic that looks like it could *possibly* be the same guy, a couple of years ago, a bit thinner, and with less facial hair:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_7YL8ljeaA...k,+Dr.+Gabriel+De+Pe�a+y+DR.+Jorge+Vargas.jpg But if you scroll through the original page, he's actually captioned as "Jorge Vargas" and the Puello is part of a caption for other people in other pictures (and Orellanas doesn't appear on the page at all, though may have appeared on a cached version, or may be in some embedded file name). Maybe not surprising that the heading on the photo of the group including Jorge is "Dr. Matlock inaugura el Instituto Láser de Rejuvenecimiento Vaginal del Caribe". And yes, the photos on this page are from the Dominican Republic.

Keep in mind that someone who's wanted in several countries is likely to be attempting to vary his appearance (perhaps with the some of the fairly sophisticated methods often used by drug traffickers, like inserts in the mouth between cheek and jaw, to change the shape of the face), as well as using various names. He might even turn up as a blonde in some photos

 

[Missizzy]

From i.b.nora's link:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100....html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsSecond

Is it any wonder that Silsby and Torres/Puello found each other some way? Conflictive is a good adjective for both!!

"At the time, Mr. Puello introduced himself as Jorge Torres, and had a letter of introduction from a synagogue in Canada, Mr. Rudman said.

Mr. Rudman said he heard over the years that Mr. Puello had grandiose plans to build a hospital and a Jewish city close to Santo Domingo's airport, but nothing came from these plans.

Mr. Rudman's impression from his one meeting with Mr. Puello was that he was very "conflictive," he said. "His attitude was 'the Messiah has arrived'" said Mr. Rudman."

 

[pinkpuddytat]

What I can't quite grasp if why this particular man sought out the Baptists.

Well if he's really the same guy as the human trafficker wanted in El Salvador, Miami, and I forget where else, then that's easy to answer. They were perfect stooges through which he could acquire more helpless children and young women.

".......he had been representing the Americans free of charge because he was a religious man who commiserated with their situation. “I’m president of the Sephardic Jewish community in the Dominican Republic,” he said. “I help people in this kind of situation. We’re not going to charge these people a dime.” I want to be as respectful as possible, but is there actually a "president of the Sephardic Jewish Community"? Is that a paid, voluntary, or honorary position? Background checks required?

Today's NYT article said he'd incorporated an entity in the DR with the name "Sephardic Jewish Community of the Dominican Republic", with himself as President. Anybody can incorporate a group with any name they choose and make themselves president of it. Who knows if he's even really a Sephardic Jew? He might have adopted the ethnicity/religion as a cover. Or maybe he really is of Sephardic descent, and just wanted to make himself look as if he's really into the whole religion/culture thing, to seem more legitimate and help draw in business for his various schemes.