Lawyer for American missionaries arrested

Jorge Puello, 32, was detained as he left a McDonald’s restaurant late Thursday in the capital, Santo Domingo, the National Drug Control Agency said.

Agency spokesman Roberto Lebron said he did not know whether Puello would be extradited to the United States, where he is wanted on smuggling charges, or El Salvador, where authorities say he led a prostitution ring.

His mother, Soledad, said earlier Thursday that she and others were negotiating with Salvadoran prosecutors for her son to turn himself in.

Puello initially served as the Americans’ legal adviser and spokesman, but authorities later identified him as the man wanted on an Interpol warrant requested by authorities in El Salvador.

US authorities have an outstanding warrant for his arrest on an alleged parole violation following a 2003 federal indictment out of Vermont accusing him of smuggling illegal migrants from Canada into the United States.

Puello was living in Canada at the time and said he was working undercover for US authorities.

Puello attracted international attention when he provided the US missionaries detained in Haiti with food, medicine, and legal assistance. One of the Americans’ Haitian lawyers, Aviol Fleurant, said that Puello absconded with $30,000 in legal fees the Americans had raised.

Puello, who was born in New York and holds US and Dominican citizenship, has said he was innocent of all accusations.

Nine of the 10 missionaries involved in the case, most of whom are from Idaho, have been released from jail and returned to the United States. Group leader Laura Silsby remains in custody at the police station that is being used as Haiti’s temporary government headquarters.