BY SIOBHAN MORRISSEY AND JIM WYSS
jwyss@MiamiHerald.com

Joran van der Sloot was a gambler.

Even as the young man was hounded by suspicions and cameras for his role in the disappearance of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway five years ago, he could be found at poker tables on two continents.

As he sat in a Chilean jail Thursday on charges that he murdered a young woman in Lima, Peru earlier this week, those who know him describe van der Sloot as an athletic and arrogant young man with a yearning for women and risk that led him across the globe.

Van der Sloot met Holloway when he was just 17 at a card table in Aruba. It was one of the last times she would be seen alive. Van der Sloot remains the prime suspect in that case. Five years to the day — on Sunday — video cameras would show van der Sloot leaving a poker tournament in Lima with 21-year-old Stephany Flores.

On Tuesday, she was found with a broken neck and wrapped in a blanket at a Lima hotel just a few blocks from the casino. Two days later, van der Sloot’s luck ran out when police in Chile detained the 22-year-old fugitive as he traveled between the resort town of Viña del Mar and the capital, Santiago.

Dressed in a black-hooded sweat shirt and with his brown hair closely cropped, van der Sloot was seen walking calmly and uncuffed into a Chilean police station escorted by three officers.

Van der Sloot’s attorney in New York, Joe Tacopina, cautioned against rushing to judgment.

“Joran van der Sloot has been falsely accused of murder once before,” Tacopina told The Associated Press. “The fact is he wears a bull’s-eye on his back now and he’s a quote-unquote usual suspect when it comes to allegations of foul play.”

Also Thursday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Alabama received an arrest warrant against van der Sloot on wire fraud and extortion charges. Money was wired from a Birmingham institution in May to Joran van der Sloot after he requested $250,000 in exchange for the whereabouts of Holloway’s remains and the circumstances relating to her death, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorneys office.

The information he provided was false, the release said.

SEEN GAMBLING

Noah Acre was playing Texas hold ‘em in the Asia Pacific Poker Tour in Macau in 2009 when he saw van der Sloot sitting across the table.

Recognizing the tall Dutchman from the round-the-clock television coverage that the Holloway case generated, he recalls van der Sloot did not seem shy about his notoriety.

He wore a loud, multicolored jacket with the logo of L.A. Café — a seedy Manila bar and brothel — and was surrounded by an entourage of young men.

Acre asked van der Sloot why he kept dealing with the media after being burned by a Dutch journalist who released hidden-camera footage that seemed to show him confessing to disposing of Holloway’s body.

“Because they gave me money,” he responded.

“I am pretty good at sizing people up quickly,” Acre said of the man he spoke to several times during the week-long tournament. “He seemed like all he cared about was partying and getting girls. . . . The whole Natalee Holloway thing didn’t seem to weigh on him one bit.”

BIGGER PLANS

Things might have been different.

Van der Sloot, the eldest of three sons, had originally planned to attend university in Florida.

But after his arrest and subsequent release, he returned to his native Holland where he studied business. He didn’t stay out of the limelight for long. Hounded by tabloids and television cameras, he traveled to New York to give a televised account of his involvement with Holloway.

When Acre met him in Macau, van der Sloot claimed to live in Thailand. The same Dutch journalist who had taped him claims van der Sloot was in Bangkok selling Thai women into prostitution in the Netherlands.

As early as last summer, van der Sloot moved again.

“The last time I spoke to his mother, she said he was in South America,” Magda Frans, the secretary at the Aruba Racquet Club, told The Miami Herald.

Joran and his father, Paulus, played doubles tennis at the club, she said.

The night before he was arrested for the first time in Holloway’s disappearance, he played doubles tennis with his father in the Moet & Chandon Anniversary Cup tournament, Frans said.

“They lost,” she said.

The match took place at 7:30 p.m. June 8, 2005. Some 10 hours later, Aruban police arrested him. The day was supposed to be memorable for other reasons: He was to graduate with honors that evening from the International School of Aruba.

It was a double blow to his mother, Anita, who taught at the school.

When reached at her home, Anita van der Sloot sounded composed and tried to politely dismiss inquiries about her son.

She has two other sons, Valentijn and Sebastian. She is now a widow. Her husband died suddenly last February playing tennis.

“I don’t know anything,” Anita told The Miami Herald. “I haven’t been in contact with Joran for a long time, not since his dad died.”

Peruvian authorities say van der Sloot traveled to Argentina and Colombia before arriving in Lima on May 14 for the Latin American Poker Tour.

Stephany Flores’ father, Ricardo, said Thursday he hoped van der Sloot’s capture would bring solace to others beyond his family.

“This is not just about my daughter,” he told reporters in Lima. “There is also the case in Aruba that is pending and we don’t know how many more.”

On MySpace and Facebook pages that appear to have been created by van der Sloot, the young man seems to have the tastes of most men his age.

He is a fan of the South Park television show, scantily clad women, the late rapper Notorious B.I.G. and President Barack Obama.

He’s also a member of a Facebook page called “If I could turn back the time” where users share their biggest regrets. If van der Sloot had any, he didn’t show his cards there.

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ORANGE CITY – There is no evidence that the alleged relationship between former commissioner Jan van der Straten , and the family Van der Sloot , played a negative role in the investigation into the disappearance of Natalee Holloway . This allowed Attorney General Rob Pietersz know yesterday afternoon .

by our reporter
Alex Lacle

Statements by former Justice Minister Rudy Croes (MEP ) in late 2008, the Public Prosecutor (OM) in response to an inquiry to start the initial phase of the investigation into the disappearance of Holloway . According to Croes would Van der Street research during the crucial early stages have deliberately hindered . ” The statements of Croes could not be proven , “says Advocate General at Taco Stein Amigoe . ” A relationship between Van der Straten and van der Sloot appeared not to be there . ”

In a comment to this newspaper says former commissioner Jan van der Straten ” delighted ” to the conclusions of the report. ” I and my family are seriously affected by the remarks of Croes and the subsequent media coverage . My good name is besmirched . ” Moreover, he stresses that what the grief his family has done in the dwarfed by the grief of the family Holloway . Van der Straten was its alleged role as a direct person , earlier by the Public informed of the findings of fact . Whether the former police chief also been informed of the contents of the full report, he would not say . ” It is so agreed with the prosecution . I’m going to say anything about the content . ” Stein said Attorney General Van der Straten ” just know ” about the content of the final report but had no access .

At the start of the inquiry was announced that the results in outline be published after completion of the review. In February this year it was announced that the final report of the National Criminal Investigation was at the OM . Attorney General Pietersz , who instituted the inquiry in early 2009 , then did not respond “because the report should be discussed internally first . With the recent report about this case to the Prosecutor dismissed . ” We see no reason to continue it . ”

Joran

The Holloway case was recently back in the spotlight by the arrest of Joran van der Sloot in Peru . The 22 -year-old sitting there in custody on suspicion of robbery in Stephany Flores on May 31 Remarkably , the murder of Flores exactly five years after the disappearance of Natalee Holloway committed. Holloway disappeared in 2005 after a night out in nightclub Carlos and Charlies . Joran was the last seen her . He is still the prime suspect in this case.

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An Alabama federal grand jury in Birmingham has indicted Joran van der Sloot on extortion and wire-fraud charges in connection with the disappearance in Aruba of Mountain Brook teen Natalee Holloway.

The indictment, announced today by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Birmingham, formally charges the Dutchman of allegations released earlier this month in a federal complaint. Federal authorities contend van der Sloot exploited the fear of Holloway’s mother, Beth, that she would never find her daughter’s body or know what happened to her unless she paid him $250,000.

Source

LIMA, Peru – As prosecutors in Peru prepared charges against Joran van der Sloot in the strangling death of a 21-year-old woman, police told NBC News on Thursday the Dutch man admits knowing the location of the remains of missing U.S. teen Natalee Holloway in Aruba.

Van der Sloot remains the lone suspect in Holloway’s disappearance — exactly five years to the day before Stephany Flores was killed in Peru.

Police sources told NBC News van der Sloot is now willing to tell authorities in Aruba where to find the Alabama teenager’s remains.

Van der Sloot was moved to a cell at the prosecutor’s office in advance of filing charges in what police called a remarkably complete confession in the killing of Flores, the daughter of a circus promoter and former race car driver whom he met playing poker at a casino.

‘Practically closed the case”
“We’ve practically closed the case,” criminal police chief Gen. Cesar Guardia told The Associated Press.

Sheathed in a bulletproof vest, the young Dutchman was driven less than a mile across central Lima during rush hour in a police caravan escorted by motorcycle officers.

Guardia said Van der Sloot “confessed with a wealth of details that have been corroborated through criminal investigative rigor.”

Guardia denied any suggestion that Van der Sloot’s confession was forced. He said a translator assigned by the Dutch Embassy was present, as was a state-appointed defense attorney.

The attorney for the slain girl’s family, Edwar Alvarez, told the AP that prosecutors have until 8 a.m. Friday morning to file charges. Otherwise, Van der Sloot would have to be freed.

It’s not clear what Van der Sloot will be charged with, NBC News reported. There are several options under Peruvian law:

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Ramirez was found dead Wednesday morning at the hotel Tac in the Lima, Peru neighborhood Miraflores, after disappearing on Friday. The family of the deceased said that van der Sloot, now 22, was the last person who was with her before her death.

ABC News’ Christine Brouwer reports that Aruban authorities have confirmed the report. Ann Angela, a spokeswoman for the Aruban public prosecutor’s office, says the public prosecutor has received a call from Peruvian authorities confirming that van der Sloot is a suspect in Ramirez’s disappearance.

Reporter Sharon Stevenson says Joran van der Sloot has left the country, passing through customs to Chile, according to Peruvian officials. They believe he may be headed to Argentina, but it appears he is on the run.

In Peruvian media reports, Ramirez’s father, Ricardo Flores, says his daughter left her friends at their home in San Isidro Friday morning and was last seen at 5:16 p.m. leaving a casino with van der Sloot.

May 30 marked the five year anniversary of Natalee Holloway’s disappearance.

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