Former Holyoke councilor fled country

Days before the scheduled start of his trial in Rhode Island, prosecutors say former Holyoke City Councilor Wilmer Puello-Mota boarded an international flight bound for Turkey and fled the country.

Puello-Mota, 28, with a last known address on Main Street in Holyoke, was scheduled to face trial on Jan. 5 but requested an extension until Jan. 9. He was charged with possession of child pornography, obstruction of the judicial system, forgery and counterfeiting.

On Jan. 7, Puello-Mota boarded Turkish Airlines Flight 8 from Dulles International Airport in Washington, bound for Istanbul, the Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office said in a bail violation filing.

“His whereabouts from that location are unknown,” Special Assistant Attorney General John C. Malloy wrote in that document. “The Defendant did not have permission from this Court to travel.”

If his trial had gone off as scheduled and if he had been convicted, Puello-Mota could have received up to five years in prison.

The Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office shared the bail violation form, along with a copy of a supporting document prepared by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection after a reporter shared a link to a Facebook page purportedly belonging to Puello-Mota.

That Facebook page, which has posts dating back to 2015, was changed to indicate that Puello-Mota now lives in Moscow. The page features a photo of Red Square at the Kremlin and says, in the Cyrillic alphabet, that Puello-Mota’s current place of employment is the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Puello-Mota is a former member of the 104th Fighter Wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, who served as a technical sergeant in the base security force at Barnes Air National Guard Base in Westfield

The Attorney General’s office in Rhode Island declined further comment.

The office of Puello-Mota’s Rhode Island attorney, John M. Cicilline, also declined comment and requested that a reporter never call them again.

Calls and texts to Puello-Mota’s cellphone, which he used as recently as a few months ago, were unreturned. And the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Documents provided by Rhode Island prosecutors say Puello-Mota presented a passport for travel.

After he failed to appear at a disposition hearing in early January, Rhode Island authorities said the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force was searching for him.

The whole criminal case against Puello-Mota stemmed from a May 2020 arrest at a hotel in Warwick, Rhode Island, after he called police to report a stolen firearm.

When they arrived, police investigating his report discovered Puello-Mota was at the hotel to meet a 17-year-old girl he’d met online. The girl told police Puello-Mota was her “sugar daddy.”

Police searched his cell phone and found nude photos and videos of the girl in a trash folder. They charged him with possession of child pornography.

During the initial investigation, the girl told police Puello-Mota had given her money. Police found evidence of payments made by Puello-Mota to the girl through the app Venmo. Puello-Mota told police at that time that he believed the girl was 22 and he had just learned she was 17.

Puello-Mota was also accused of charges of obstruction of the judicial system, forgery and counterfeiting. Prosecutors say he forged documents and impersonated his commander while a member of the 104th in an attempt to get a favorable disposition on the child porn charges.

Massachusetts State Police arrested him on May 11, 2022, at the entrance of Barnes.

He was a Holyoke Ward 2 councilor until the end of 2023 after he did not run for reelection. His fellow councilors tried to expel him, but he sued and regained the seat.