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'Smallville' Actress Chases Police Car Holding Suspected Cult Leader During Mexico Arrest
Keith Raniere is charged with abusing women through coercion and violence.
A dramatic video has emerged showing the arrest of accused cult-leader and sex-trafficker Keith Raniere.
The video depicts Mexican Federal police officers armed with automatic weapons just after they placed Raniere in the back of a police car. As the police prepare to leave, the woman holding the camera says to a second woman at the scene: “Let’s go in the car. We can … we’re gonna follow them.”
As the police car holding Raniere backs away, the woman holding the camera says: “Let’s go you guys.”
According to Federal prosecutors, the women then “chased the car in which the defendant was being transported in their own car at high speed.”
The video was published online by artvoice.com.
ArtVoice identified the women as Loreta Garza, Nicki Clyne, Allison Mack and Lauren Salzman. Salzman is a co-founder of the alleged cult ran by Raniere, NXIVM, whose upstate New York house was searched by the FBI on Tuesday, according to the Albany Times Union, while Mack won two Teen Choice Awards for Best TV Sidekick for her role as Chloe Sullivan in “Smallville.”
ArtVoice is published by Frank Parlato, who described himself to Oxygen.com as an independent investigative journalist. Parlato also publishes several Buffalo-area newspapers and websites, including the Niagara Report, South Buffalo News, the Frontpage and the FrankReport.com, a muckraking website dedicated to revealing Raniere and his alleged cult, NXIVM.
Parlato worked for NXIVM as its publicist from 2007 until 2009, but has since become a vocal critic of Raniere and NXIVM.
The reaction of the women captured in the video of Raniere’s arrest is consistent with the allegations of sexual slavery made against him by federal prosecutors.
The charges "are the culmination of decades of abusing women and girls through manipulation and coercion and, at times, physical violence,” federal prosecutors wrote in a letter opposing Raniere's release on bail. Raniere, they wrote, has a “long-standing history of systematically exploiting women through coercive practices.”
“The extent of his brazenness is demonstrated by the fact that he identified his adherents as ‘slaves’ and had them branded with his initials.”
NXIVM released a statement on its website Wednesday that read, in part:
“In response to the allegations against our founder, Keith Raniere, we are currently working with the authorities to demonstrate his innocence and true character. We strongly believe the justice system will prevail in bringing the truth to light.”
[Photo: Getty]
