Van der Sloot Was Paid $25,000 By the FBI in Sting

According to the NY Post, murder suspect Joran Van der Sloot was paid $25,000 in a sting operation by the FBI in exchange for the location where he buried American student Natalie Holloway’s body.

Holloway went missing during a senior class graduation trip to the Arubas on May 30, 2005. Van der Sloot was the prime suspect in that case from the beginning. He was arrested twice but Aruban authorities didn’t have the evidence to make a charge stick.

The case was revived in April after Van der Sloot contacted a lawyer for Hollyway’s family and requested $250,000 to tell them where her body was buried. The FBI sent 10-12 agents to Aruba to conduct a sting operation, according to the AP.

“He wanted to come clean, but he also wanted money,” said private investigator, Bo Dietl, who was hired by the Holloway family.

John Kelly, the lawyer for Holloway’s family, met with Van der Sloot in a Aruba hotel where he was videotaped accepting a $25,000 cash down payment. He was told he would receive the balance of the $250,000 when Holloway’s body was found.

Van der Sloot told Kelly on tape that he pushed Holloway down and she hit her head and died. Van der Sloot said after Holloway died, he contacted his father who helped him bury the body. His father passed away of a heart attack in January of this year.

After taking the money, Van der Sloot led Kelly to a location on the island, but no body was found.

Van der sloot then traveled to Peru where he met 22-year-old Stefany Flores Ramirez at a casino. Ramirez’s body was found a day later in a Peru hotel room registered to Van der Sloot. Her neck was broken and she was badly beaten. Van der Sloot allegedly confessed to killing Ramirez, but his attorney now says his confession was coerced.

Questions surround the FBI’s involvement in the case. Why he wasn’t arrested for extortion when he accepted the cash in exchange for information?

Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy asked FBI Director Robert Mueller for an explanation of “exactly what happened in this case and the basis for all actions taken by the FBI.”

According to the FBI, Van der Sloot was not arrested in Aruba when he accepted the $25,000 because the case “was not sufficiently developed to bring charges prior to the time van der Sloot left Aruba.”