Forget Kevin Bacon. When it comes to all things shady and crazy, everyone's got a South Florida connection.
Jorge Puello -- the former legal advisor to the 10 Baptist missionaries from Idaho who were arrested and jailed on kidnapping charges after attempting to illegally take 33 children out of Haiti for adoption - is no different.
"That's when Jorge began to go wrong," Franco Cerminara, Puello's stepfather told the Associated Press of their move to South Florida from the Dominican Republican.
Puello's mother, Ana, and Cerminara said that at 15 Puello began dating a stripper 10 years older than him. Soon after, Puello moved to Philadelphia, where he was convicted of bank fraud.
Now, the supposed do-gooder who claims he just wanted to help has Dominican authorities searching for him, as he is wanted in El Salvador for human trafficking. Authorities say he and his wife lured women into prostitution with false promises of modeling jobs. Puello disputes the claim, saying that he and his wife merely took in women who smugglers had abandoned.
"I'm planning to go to El Salvador to tackle this problem," Puello, who also, four years ago, claimed he was the "newly elected president of the Jewish Communities of Dominican Republic," told the Associated Press from the Dominican Republic.
"I am not afraid to face the music."
