Federal agents trying to build an extortion case against Joran van der Sloot secretly gave him the cash that wound up funding his trip to Peru, where he killed a young woman exactly five years after the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, The Post has learned.
Van der Sloot tried to shake down Holloway's mother by offering information about her daughter's 2005 disappearance, and agents decided to set him up with a $25,000 payoff, a source told The Post yesterday.
An intermediary acting under the direction of the FBI gave van der Sloot the dough in Aruba on May 10 -- and four days later, he flew to Peru, where he allegedly murdered 21-year-old Stephany Flores in his Lima hotel room.
Van der Sloot was free to travel because after the money was given to the 22-year-old Dutch national, the feds didn't promptly file charges against him. US authorities also did not ask that he be detained in Aruba, even after officials there warned that he was about to leave the island, the source said.
The failure to stop van der Sloot shocked and infuriated Holloway's mom, Beth Twitty. She had been "told that an arrest was going to happen before he left" Aruba, where he was the last person believed to have seen Holloway alive when she vanished, the source said.
Van der Sloot took his payola from the feds -- a $15,000 wire transfer and $10,000 in cash -- and went to Peru to play poker, the source said.
It was only last Thursday -- hours after van der Sloot was nabbed on the lam in Chile for Flores' murder -- that federal prosecutors in Alabama announced they were charging him with extortion and wire fraud in the Holloway shakedown.
About Me
- TheRightFieldLine
- A farm boy in Minnesota, I acquired my first rifle at 5 and my shotgun at 9. At 10, I was living in Duluth, in a tough neighborhood. So I sawed off the barrel of my rifle and whittled a pistol grip. The farm boy was now ready for life in the city. In the army I expanded my repertoire to the M1, the bazooka, machine guns and other things that make loud noises. It was a blast, and I didn't have to pay for the ammo. Along the way, I broke bones playng football and spilled blood on hockey rinks. No regrets. Sports were a blast. Still are. I spent two years at two elite universities, but got my education at the University of Minnesota. A career journalist, I loved my craft until it took up social emgineering in the mid-90s. An industry that had welcomed bright, witty and irreverent free-thinkers was suddenly filling up with not-so-bright leftist zealots on a mission. So I quit. Since then, I have skated, roller-bladed, skied, sailed, canoed, worked out, traced my family roots, honed my churlish side and set up this blog. The old instincts are coming back. Life is good.
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