A strange new twist in the Haiti trafficking case

The lawyer for the 10 American missionaries charged with taking 33 children out of Haiti without permission was fired earlier this week by the group’s legal advisor, Jorge Puello, after being accused of trying to offer bribes to get the group out of jail. If you think that’s weird, the situation took a bizarre turn ...

The lawyer for the 10 American missionaries charged with taking 33 children out of Haiti without permission was fired earlier this week by the group’s legal advisor, Jorge Puello, after being accused of trying to offer bribes to get the group out of jail.

If you think that’s weird, the situation took a bizarre turn yesterday when it was revealed by the New York Times that Mr. Puello was also being investigated for allegedly leading a trafficking ring involved with Central American and Caribbean women and girls.

No wonder Mr. Puello said in an interview that he was "representing the Americans free of charge because he was a religious man who commiserated with their situation." Color me crazy but employing the services of a wanted international trafficker typically isn’t the best way to convince a judge that you weren’t trying to smuggle children. I can’t help but think that these guys are now way up the proverbial creek.

Kayvan Farzaneh is an editorial researcher at Foreign Policy.

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