LIMA, Peru — The Dutch man long suspected of playing a role the 2005 disappearance of Alabama teen Natalee Holloway has been transferred to U.S. custody to face fraud allegations.
Joran van der Sloot left the Piedras Gordas prison Thursday morning and was taken to the Jorge Chavez International Airport in Callao, Peru, where he was handed over to U.S. authorities.
He completed less than half of his 28-year prison sentence in Peru for the killing of another woman in 2010 before the transfer.
Holloway’s disappearance 18 years ago has long vexed authorities in Aruba and the United States. Peruvian officials revealed last month they were handing him over to the American authorities.
The 18-year-old Holloway was vacationing with classmates in Aruba, celebrating their high school graduation, when she vanished on May 30, 2005 and hasn’t been seen since. She was last seen getting into a car with van der Sloot and two other men.
While Holloway’s body has not turned up, she’s been declared legally dead by an Alabama probate judge.
Van der Sloot was arrested in connection to Holloway’s disappearance but later released due to lack of evidence.
While van der Sloot has never been prosecuted for kidnapping or murder in the Holloway case, he’s been indicted in the Northern District of Alabama on federal allegations of wire fraud and extortion.
He’s accused of lying to the teen’s mother, Beth Holloway, and taking $25,000 from her in exchange for information about the location of Natalee’s body.
“This information, as the defendant knew then, was false,” according to the 2010 indictment. The indictment later added that van der Sloot “confirmed by e-mail that the information he provided concerning Natalee Holloway was ‘worthless.'”
Van der Sloot had spent more than a decade behind bars in Peru for the killing of of business student Stephany Flores, 21, in a Lima hotel room on May 30, 2010.
He reportedly attacked Flores after she looked at his laptop computer and determined he was connected to Holloway’s disappearance.
By DAVID K. LI/NBC News