Joran van der Sloot is expected to be transferred to a maximum security prison in Lima, Peru, on Thursday prior to being extradited to the United States, according to an Interpol official.
Van der Sloot is facing extortion and wire fraud charges in the U.S. in connection with Natalee Holloway’s 2005 disappearance during a Mountain Brook High School, Alabama, senior trip in Aruba.
He allegedly asked the Holloway family for a total of $250,000 — $25,000 upfront to give away information regarding the location of Natalee Holloway’s remains, with the rest of the money to be paid when her body was positively identified.
However, prosecutors in the U.S. allege van der Sloot lied to Beth Holloway’s lawyer, John Q. Kelly, about where her daughter’s remains were located.
Joran Van der Sloot is shown during his preliminary hearing in court in the Lurigancho prison in Lima. The Peruvian Supreme Court approved the extradition of Joran van der Sloot to the U.S. on charges of extorting money from the family of missing Alabama teen Natalee Holloway. (Ernesto Benavides/AFP/Getty Images/File)
In an earlier interview with Fox News Digital, Col. Carlos López Aeda, the chief of Interpol in Lima, Peru, said that van der Sloot will be transferred from Challapalca to a maximum-security prison in Lima on Thursday. The prison is nearly a day’s drive away from Lima.
“We have agreed to transfer Joran next week, I estimate Thursday, from Challapalca to a maximum-security prison in Lima,” López Aeda said.
Afterward, he will be available for extradition on May 29, the Interpol official said.
“As of May 29, he will be available so that the U.S. authorities can transfer him to the United States. They have indicated that, during the first week of June, an FBI aircraft with FBI agents will come to extradite him from a Peruvian Air Force base,” he said.
The Interpol official said that the extradition shouldn’t happen later than June 8 or June 9.
López Aeda said Peruvian officials need to conduct medical procedures to certify van der Sloot is in “good health” before the extradition. He said that the staff transporting van der Sloot will be tested for COVID-19.
A general view of the Holiday Inn resort in Noord, Aruba, May 12, 2023, which is the resort where Natalee Holloway stayed in 2005 before she disappeared. (Mega for Fox News Digital)
“We are going to carry out the medical procedures to certify Joran’s good health, the COVID tests that even the staff who are going to transfer him have to do, those of us who are going to participate in the security convoy and guarantee that all his rights are respected so that everything is carried out in the fastest and most efficient way, unless the defense presents some appeal, which we highly doubt it,” López Aeda said.
“That’s all for now, we’re ready, we’ve done all the coordination in detail. Now, the ball is in the side of the United States, let them come and extradite him,'” he added.
Natalee Holloway was last seen alive in Aruba while on a high school senior trip. (Federal Bureau of Investigation)
Van der Sloot, a Dutch national, is in a Peruvian prison for the murder of 21-year-old Stephany Flores in 2010. His original sentence was 28 years, but more time was handed to him because of a drug smuggling scandal in prison.
Beth Holloway fights back tears as she participates in the launch of the Natalee Holloway Resource Center on June 8, 2010, in Washington, D.C. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
The body of Natalee Holloway was never found. In January 2012, van der Sloot pleaded guilty to killing Flores, and Natalee Holloway was legally declared dead that month.
Natalee Holloway’s mother, Beth, said in an earlier statement shared with Fox News Digital that the extradition gives a chance for justice to finally be served.
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Joran van der Sloot is the prime suspect in the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway. He is serving a prison sentence in Peru for murdering a 21-year-old woman named Stephany Flores in 2010. (Getty Images | AP)
“I was blessed to have had Natalee in my life for 18 years, and as of this month, I have been without her for exactly 18 years. She would be 36 years old now,” Beth Holloway said. “It has been a very long and painful journey, but the persistence of many is going to pay off. Together, we are finally getting justice for Natalee.”
Fox News’ Michael Ruiz and Haley Chi-Sing contributed to this report.
