Van der Sloot Being Investigated in Thailand for Participation in Sex Slave Gang, Disappearance of Girls, Says Report
NEW YORK (CBS) Joran van der Sloot reportedly can add Thailand to the list of countries that might like to see him behind bars indefinitely.
PICTURES: Van der Sloot Hotel Room Crime ScenePICTURES: Joran van der Sloot
Thai officials are investigating the Netherlands native regarding his alleged involvement in a Thai sex slave gang and for the disappearance of a young woman he may have recruited for the gang, according to the National Enquirer.
After escaping charges for the disappearance of Natalee Holloway in 2008, van der Sloot allegedly fled to Bangkok and posed as "Murphy Jenkins," a production consultant for a modeling agency, reports the Enquirer.
Van der Sloot then did what he does best. He lied. He convinced the impressionable girls he was going to send them to Europe to become models.
Except several of the girls never achieved their modeling dreams, nor were they ever heard from again, says the tabloid.
PICTURES: Van der Sloot Hotel Room Crime Scene PICTURES: Joran van der Sloot
"Girls who are approached by sex traffickers here often get killed, especially if they discover they are being tricked into prostitution and start to resist or threaten to go to the police," a Thai law enforcement official told the Enquirer. "Many of these girls have no legal documents. If they go missing, nobody notices. It's easy to kill them, hide the bodies and get away with it."
A source for CBS News spoke to Peru's Minister of Justice who confirmed that Thailand was pursuing criminal charges against van der Sloot.
Joran van der Sloot reportedly confessed to the murder of Stephany Flores - and then later recanted the confession to a Dutch newspaper. He remains in custody in Peru.
The 22-year-old remains the prime suspect in the disappearance of Holloway, who vanished in Aruba during a high school graduation trip. Despite van der Sloot having been arrested twice in the Holloway case, Aruban prosecutors say they do not have enough evidence to put him behind bars.
Explicit crime scene photos were previously obtained exclusively by 48 Hours | Mystery from sources close to the investigation and published exclusively by Crimesider. They show a severely beaten Flores, her body badly bruised, her clothes stained with blood.
