Holloway Detainee Held On Drug Charges

A Dutch youth who has been detained in the case of a missing U.S. teenager was arrested on suspicion of drug offenses as well as involvement in her disappearance, the Aruban prosecutor's office said Tuesday.

Geoffrey Van Cromvoirt, the 19-year-old Dutch youth, was scheduled to appear before a judge Tuesday for the first time since his arrest as a suspect in the disappearance of Alabama teen Natalee Holloway.

"G.V.C. is suspected of criminal offenses that may be related to the disappearance of Miss Holloway and of offenses related to dealing in illegal narcotics," the prosecutor's office said in a brief statement.

The prosecutor's office had not previously disclosed why the 19-year-old was held.

Monday's announcement by prosecutors that someone was being held in connection with the disappearance of the Alabama teen nearly a year ago was the first major development in months in a case that has featured numerous false leads and the arrest of seven people who were later released.

"I think we are in a pretty crucial phase. You have heard, of course, that investigation, the lead investigator has been replaced," Attorney Arlene Ellis-Schipper tells CBS News correspondent Bianca Solorzano. "It's Mr. Richardson now. He's a very analytical person."

Lawyers for a Dutch youth and two Surinamese brothers who were jailed as suspects, and released after a judge ruled there was insufficient evidence to hold them, said the 19-year-old taken into custody had not been mentioned in connection with the case.

Solorzano reports the teen lives at his family's home, and his father owns a security company. But it's the island's beaches where Van Cromvoirt spends a lot of his time, working as a beach patrol member or in water sports. Friends tell CBS News he's very outgoing, always joking around with co-workers and tourists.

Joseph Tacopina, who represents Dutch youth Joran van der Sloot, told CBS News Van Cromvoirt was detained because police recovered a T-shirt belonging to him with "relevant forensic information" from the south side of the Dutch Caribbean island.

The prosecutor's office has declined to specify the detainee's alleged connection to Holloway, who was last seen leaving a bar with van der Sloot and the two Surinamese brothers, Deepak and Satish Kalpoe.

Van der Sloot's father told The Associated Press that his son has never met the 19-year-old detainee.

"Joran did not know him at all," said Paulus van der Sloot, a former island justice official who also was detained and later released on suspicion of involvement in Holloway's disappearance.

Ronny Wix, a lawyer who represents the Kalpoe brothers, said he was not yet sure whether his clients know the detainee but he believes they will eventually be cleared of any involvement.

"There is no evidence that my clients have anything to do with the disappearance of Natalee Holloway," Wix told AP.

Tacopina, who represents van der Sloot in a civil suit filed against him by Holloway's family, said the detention of "G.V.C." was good news for his client because it suggested the investigation was heading in a new direction.

"This kid has been under an umbrella of suspicion for 11 months based on no evidence," he said. Van der Sloot has said he left Holloway, then 18, at a beach near her hotel after they kissed on the final night of her high school graduation trip.

"The next step, hopefully, is this investigation keeps rolling in the direction it is. Hopefully there's some additional leads that are followed up on. Hopefully there's some resolution," Tacopina told The Early Show Monday.

Dave Holloway, the young woman's father, told the "Today" show he was hopeful about the detention, which came days after the police said they had received dozens of tips after a Dutch television program aired in Aruba and the Netherlands appealing to the public for help in the case.

"It's a very, very new name that hasn't even been on the radar screens," Holloway said. "Maybe it's a break in the case. Maybe it's that card that will bring the whole deck down. We don't know at this point."

"Of course I'm encouraged about the news and the new development and the arrest, and I hope it leads to something," Beth Twitty, Natalee's mother, said in a television interview. "We just have to be guarded. We've seen it happen too many times where nothing ever came to fruition, nothing."

Holloway has been the subject of extensive searches involving Dutch Marines, the FBI and hundreds of volunteers.