Dutch Poker Pro Arrested In Chile On Murder Charges

Dutch poker pro Joran van der Sloot was finally apprehended in Chile, four days after fleeing from Peru following the discovery of the body of 21 year-old Stephany Flores, found murdered in his hotel room.
Five years earlier, Sloot was staying with his late father, who was a judge on the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba, when he was arrested on suspicion of the murder of another young girl, Natalee Ann Holloway aged 18 at the time.
Sloot was was later released due to lack of a body and conclusive evidence, but this time his luck might finally have run out. Not only was the latest victim, Stephany Flores’ the daughter of well known Peruvian businessman Ricardo Flores, who has previously run for vice president and president of Peru.
But this time a body was found, including damming CCTV recordings showing Sloot with the victim that Sunday night, and hotel employees confirming they saw the two enter his hotel room at 5 a.m. with only Sloot leaving four hours later.
In another twist, Joran van der Sloot has now had an arrest warrant issued for him by the US state of Alabama, on extortion and wire fraud charges. Apparently, Sloot had tried to extort $250,000 from an as of yet undisclosed person in return for information concerning the whereabouts of Natalee Holloway and the circumstances of her death. He is believed to have already received a $15,000 partial payment wire from the individual.
Joran van der Sloot has been gallivanting around the world the last few years, playing poker on the Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT) and thumbing his nose at the authorities. Perhaps having had an influential judge for a father might have led him to believe he could get away with murder.
One of the biggest questions remain how Sloot was able to escape prosecution five years earlier, especially having admitting on tape to an undercover crime reporter, to asking a friend help him dispose of Natalee Ann Holloway’s body in Aruba. Commenting on Slot’s arrest, Holloway’s father said:
There’s no doubt Van der Sloot’s a bad kid. He screwed up and he needs to be locked up somewhere.”