Detailed Timeline # 1.... 1991 through May 28, 2005

The Natalee Holloway Timeline

of her vanishment while in Aruba

detailing persons, places, organizations,

deliberate & accidental actions & in-actions,
events & supposed events, witnesses,
known suspects, outright lies,
corruptions, and crimes

1991

Current Murder Suspect PAULUS VAN DER SLOOT obtains an ARUBA government job contract at GEA working for the ARUBA government and moves his wife and two sons there. Current Murder Suspect PAULUS VAN DER SLOOT immediate supervising manager when NATALEE vanished was Director HUBERT MADURO.Since NATALEE vanished, Current Murder Suspect PAULUS VAN DER SLOOT has admitted to being good friends with RUDY CROES, the Minister of Justice for all of ARUBA.
Current Murder Suspect PAULUS VAN DER SLOOT applied to his friend, the ARUBA Minister of Justice for a job position just before Natalee disappeared after Current Murder Suspect PAULUS VAN DER SLOOT was informed he had failed his training to be a judge.Current Murder Suspect PAULUS VAN DER SLOOT taught the ARUBA Minister of Justice's daughter in class.The ARUBA Minister of Justice is the Godfather to the youngest son of Current Murder Suspect PAULUS VAN DER SLOOT. The ARUBA Minister of Justice taught Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT in a class.
(a Dutch police report quoted later by a Dutch paper said that Aruba Minister of Justice Rudy Croes denied Aruba Prosecutor Karin Janssen's request for expert Dutch help early in the Natalee Holloway investigation)


1993
NATALEE’s father, DAVE HOLLOWAY, and mother, BETH divorce (BETH keeps her last name as “Holloway”). Both parents remain in CLINTON, MISSISSIPPI. (sometime before 1996 DAVE moved to JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI)
The VANDER SLOOT’s third child, SEBASTIAN, is born in ARUBA.

March 1993
ARUBA’s reputation as a “Mafia island” became public in March 1993 when the Italian daily “Corriere della Sera” described it as “the first state to be bought by the bosses Cosa Nostra.” The Sicilian Mafia clan of the families Cuntrera and Caruana allegedly had taken over the island.
Gary Kaplan, the man behind the “BetOnSports.com” Internet gambling Website and a neighborhood bookie from New York, was arrested in his home state on gambling charges in 1993. According to a Grand Jury indictment against him which was unsealed in July 2006 when Kaplan was arrested, Kaplan then sought and received shelter from and in Aruba in 1993. He established free phone telephone lines and Internet websites to take bets from bettors.

5-15-93
On 5-15-93 the “AP” reported:

Under the Sun-and-Fun: Mafia, Drugs and Money Laundering
May 15, 1993, Saturday, AM cycleBy KEVIN NOBLET, Associated Press WriterA bout of political mudslinging in this sunny Dutch dependency has revealed a glimpse of the Caribbean's shady side: organized crime's extensive presence in the region.In the bitter aftermath of a hotly contested January election, Prime Minister Nelson Oduber and his opposition are tarring each other with allegations of ties to a notorious Sicilian Mafia family that moved into Aruba in the late 1980s.The charges are unusual only in that they are public. Many officials in the Caribbean are loath to discuss crime and corruption openly, lest the region's carefully cultivated reputation as a vacation paradise be tarnished.But under the sun-and-fun surface of many islands, from the Caymans to Curacao, is a criminal underground laundering money and stolen goods, running drugs or guns.Law enforcement experts say the Caribbean's politics, economics and even geography have combined to make it especially vulnerable to the mob. Its small governments, often less than professional, are ill equipped to cope with the problem.Organized crime is hardly new to the region. Pirates and buccaneers plied the blue-green waters centuries ago. Havana was rife with mobsters before Fidel Castro's revolution in 1959. Thieves and con men like fugitive financier Robert Vesco, now living in Cuba, traditionally have found safe haven in the Caribbean.According to law enforcement experts, events in the last two decades created an even more powerful magnet for big-time crooks.As the cocaine industry developed in nearby South America to feed the American and European markets, some British and Dutch islands were becoming independent and others were achieving greater political and economic autonomy.With few natural resources, the new governments turned to tourism, gambling and tax sheltering as sources of income."They plighted their troth with the convenience of offshore banking and casino gambling," said Merrill Parks, operations chief of the F.B.I. organized crime-drug branch.Tourist services "are all cash-intensive businesses," he said in a telephone interview from Washington. "It's easy to hide money in them."More recently, Italian crime groups began forging alliances with Colombian cocaine cartels, often working from bases in Caracas, Venezuela. They found the Dutch islands, just off Venezuela and not far from Colombia, especially attractive."They've infiltrated casinos, hotel and tourism businesses on the islands of Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, St. Maarten," Parks said.The mudslinging in Aruba involves the Sicilian brothers Pasquale, Paolo and Gaspare Cuntrera, who according to Dutch and Italian press reports made extensive investments in Aruba in the late 1980s and early 1990s.Foes of Oduber allege that members of his Cabinet had dealings with the Cuntreras, who were arrested in Venezuela in September. They were sent to Italy to face charges of laundering hundreds of millions of dollars in drug smugglingprofits."Corruption was not part of our daily life, it was an exception," said opposition leader Hendrik Eman. "Now that's changing."Oduber claims it was Eman who let the Cuntreras into Aruba when he was prime minister in 1986-1989. He says Eman and his aides overruled lower-ranking officials who recommended the Cuntreras be kept out."If Mr. Eman wants to talk about the Mafia, he should look in his own backyard," Oduber said in an interview.The Dutch islands are not alone. Money-laundering scandals periodically arise, and often are quickly hushed up, in the current or former British dependencies of Antigua, the Bahamas, the Caymans, Montserrat, and Turks and Caicos.U.S. drug enforcement officials refer to larger Caribbean nations - Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica - as "aircraft carriers" for the drug cartels. Even Cuba allegedly has served as a transshipment point for U.S.-bound cocaine.Other types of organized crime also have taken root.In the Dominican Republic a year ago, F.B.I. agents and local Police raided an international bookmaking ring that served high-stakes sports bettors in the United States.The operation, which used toll-free "800" numbers, also worked out of Jamaica 's Montego Bay, where it was raided in December, and is believed to continue elsewhere in the region.U.S. Investigators say the ring has ties to Mafia groups in the United States and to casinos in Las Vegas and elsewhere."They had weekly transactions in excess of $ 3 million" in the Jamaica office alone, said Jamaica's deputy Police commissioner, Bertram Milwood.Milwood said another major racket is the sale of stolen cars from the United States and Europe.Montserrat's chief minister suffered political embarrassment in 1992 when he had to surrender his BMW. It had had been stolen in Britain, then passed through a ring that shipped cars to Montserrat, Antigua and other islands.The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and FBI, Britain's Scotland Yard and French and Dutch detectives all have pushed for tighter crime controls in the Caribbean.Parks of the F.B.I. said he has noted "a change in the will" of governments, which are beginning to pass money-laundering laws and other anti-crime legislation. He said the islands are realizing that if they do not crack down, "they'll end up being run by the criminal element."Dutch officials took direct control of St. Maarten's finances last year, responding to allegations of corruption, and may extend the supervision to other Dutch islands.Aruba's prime minister, Oduber, cautioned that too many controls might strangle the Caribbean economies."We have no natural resources," he said, "and we have to survive."



5-22-93
On 5-22-93 the “AP” reported:

The Caribbean's Shady Side: Organized Crime
By KEVIN NOBLET, Associated Press WriterA bout of political mudslinging in the sunny Dutch dependency of Aruba has revealed a glimpse of the Caribbean's shady side: organized crime's extensive presence.In the aftermath of a hotly contested January election, Prime Minister Nelson Oduber and his opposition have been tarring each other with allegations of ties to a notorious Sicilian Mafia family that moved into Aruba in the late 1980s.Many officials in the Caribbean are loath to discuss crime and corruption openly, lest the region's carefully cultivated reputation as a vacation paradise be tarnished.But in many islands, from the Caymans to Curacao, a criminal underground is laundering money and stolen goods, running drugs or guns.Law enforcement experts say the Caribbean's politics, economics and even geography have combined to make it especially vulnerable to the mob. Its small governments, often less than professional, are ill equipped to cope with the problem.Organized crime is hardly new to the region. Pirates and buccaneers plied the blue-green waters centuries ago. Havana was rife with mobsters before Fidel Castro's revolution in 1959. Thieves and con men such as fugitive financier Robert Vesco, now living in Cuba, traditionally have found safe haven in the Caribbean.Law enforcement experts say events in the last two decades created an even more powerful magnet for big-time crooks.As the cocaine industry developed in nearby South America to feed the American and European markets, British and Dutch islands were becoming independent or achieving greater political and economic autonomy.With few natural resources, the new governments turned to tourism, casino gambling and tax sheltering as sources of income.Tourist services "are all cash-intensive businesses," said Merill Parks, operations chief of the FBI-organized crime drug branch in a telephone interview from Washington.More recently, Italian crime groups began forging alliances with Colombian cocaine cartels, often working from bases in Caracas, Venezuela. They found the Dutch islands, just off Venezuela and not far from Colombia, especially attractive."They've infiltrated casinos, hotel and tourism businesses on the islands of Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, St. Maarten," Parks said.Officials in the Netherlands took direct control of St. Maarten's finances last year, responding to allegations of corruption.The mudslinging in Aruba involves the Sicilian brothers Pasquale, Paolo and Gaspare Cuntrera. Dutch and Italian press reports say the brothers made extensive investments in Aruba in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Foes of Oduber allege that members of his cabinet had dealings with the Cuntreras, who were arrested in Venezuela in September. They were sent to Italy to face charges of laundering hundreds of millions of dollars in drug-smuggling profits.Money-laundering scandals also periodically arise -- and often are quickly hushed up -- in the current or former British dependencies of the Bahamas, the Caymans, Montserrat, and Turks and Caicos. U.S. drug enforcement officials refer to larger Caribbean countries -- Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica -- as "aircraft carriers" for the drug cartels. Even Cuba allegedly has served as a trans-shipment point for U.S.-bound cocaine.Other types of organized crime also have taken root.In the Dominican Republic a year ago, F.B.I. agents and local Police raided an international bookmaking ring that served high-stakes sports bettors in the United States.The operation, which used toll-free 800 numbers, also worked out of Jamaica's Montego Bay, where it was raided in December, and is believed to continue elsewhere in the region.



1995
DAVE HOLLOWAY marries ROBIN. They live in JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI.

1996
DAVE and ROBIN HOLLOWAY move back to CLINTON, MISSISSIPPI to be closer to NATALEE and MATT.

In 1996 an AMERICAN woman tourist was shot and murdered by two robbers while in ARUBA.
On April 19, 2006 user identity “momja” of the “Blogs for Natalee” reported*:

Read this from ABC33/40 in BirminghamAruba: More Women Speak Out
"My heart aches for Natalee and her family. I've known from the minute Natalee was announced missing on the TV, exactly what happened to her. I have been in touch with the FBI, and they have my statement. I have been to Aruba 3 times, and the last time was HORRIBLE. In 1996, I went with my husband and 4 friends. We stayed at the same hotel Natalee stayed at. My husband and I were both drugged, taken from the hotel casino.
My husband was locked in a back room of the bar The Rio Grande, I was taken out to the desert, and didnt come out of the black out until the next morning. I had been raped and beaten. I was fortunate enough to 4alk my way out of the situation, promising I wouldnt go to the Police. When I got back to my hotel, my husband and a friend did go to the Police station..........it is just like you've seen on the TV for the Holloway-Twitty family. They did NOTHING to help us at all. Even with the Police knowing, that the casino-workers and the Commishioner of the casino had a problem with the 'man', and were also willing to help my husband and I.
We switched hotels that day, and stayed in most of the time we were there. The night before we were to leave all 6 of us decided to go to the beach. That 'man' showed up. My husband and cousin got a hold of him, we asked a hotel worker to call the Police (they took almost an hour to get there). We told them what had happened and they simply put him in the back of the Police jeep uncuffed, and drove away with him. I guess we were all in shock, my husband and I just glad to be leaving both alive.
They have never mentioned on the news the brothel out in the desert behind the "Holiday Inn" pass the light house, thats were I was taken to, a Police-woman told me that it was a Whore-House, no big deal??
I have tried to get in touch with Beth Holloway, I think I could maybe help her or at least tell her that Natalee didnt feel any pain, as I said I was drugged and I dont remember anything until the next day. A lot of parents are now coming on TV again with the same situations of missing children from all islands, but none have gotten any justice or even an answer. It seems I am the only one to have survived. I pray for Natalee and her family every morning and every night, and badly wish there was a way to comfort her mom, who has been, and has had to be, a very strong woman. My husband had to only endure a couple hours of not knowing if I was alive or what happened. He said he can’t imagine how they feel. So, our hearts and prayers are with them daily. I hope this all ends soon for them, no mother should have to be put through this.
I havent been able to talk about what happened to me for 9 years, but I would do ANYTHING to help Natalee and her family.
A.Cormier
Source: ABC 33/40 Alabama's News Leader

*Originally written by A. CORMIER on 8-22 here

8-24-96
An AMERICAN, RICHARD HENRIQUEZ, was last seen in ARUBA on August 24, 1996. If you have any helpful information, please contact daphduck@yahoo.com

12-2-96
In December 1996, UNITED STATES President CLINTON put ARUBA on the UNITED STATES list of “Major Illicit Drug-transit Countries.” ARUBA is still on this list, today. Here is President CLINTON’s notification of ARUBA being placed on the list of “Major Illicit Drug-transit Countries”:

Letter From The President To The Chairmen And Ranking Members Of The House Committees On Appropriations And International Relations And The Senate Committees On Appropriations And Foreign Relations
December 2, 1996Dear Mr. Chairman:In accordance with the provisions of section 490(h) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (FAA), as amended, I have determined that the following countries are major illicit drug-producing or drug-transit countries:Afghanistan, Aruba, The Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Burma, Cambodia, China, Columbia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Jamaica, Laos, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Venezuela, and Vietnam.These countries have been selected on the basis of information from the March 1, 1996, International Narcotics Control Strategy Report and from other United States Government sources.This year, I have added Aruba to the list of major illicit drug-transit countries. At the same time, I am adding the Netherlands Antilles to those countries that we monitor as potentially significant drug-transit countries.These already include Cuba, Turkey, the Balkan Route countries and the former poppy-growing countries of Central Asia.ArubaIn the past 2 years, there has been a major shift in drug trafficking patterns, as enforcement activities in Mexico, the western Caribbean, and The Bahamas have pushed trafficking routes eastward. Taking advantage of the limited enforcement capabilities of most eastern Caribbean countries, Colombian drug syndicates have been routing U.S.-bound cocaine and heroin through the region.Consequently, countries that in the past have been peripheral to the drug trade have now taken on major roles that significantly affect the United States. While all of the eastern Caribbean is vulnerable to exploitation by traffickers, we have identified Aruba as a major drug-transit country. Aruba is situated on a major drug-transit route, with the vast majority of the cocaine and heroin that transits Aruba destined for the United States.Cocaine trafficking through Aruba to Puerto Rico continues to involve both transshipment through Aruba and redistribution from Aruba as a hub to other locations. Cocaine is smuggled by ship via Aruba, using commercial vessels, cruise ships, pleasure craft, and fishing boats. In addition, according to the DEA, traffickers use Aruba's free-zone facilities to engage in transit of bulk shipments of cocaine without scrutiny by local officials. A substantial portion of the free-zone's businesses in Aruba are owned and operated by members of the Mansur family, who have been indicted in the United States on charges of conspiracy to launder trafficking proceeds. Analysis of the trafficking patterns indicates that there is considerable drug activity taking place around the Netherlands Antilles, especially around St. Maarten. Although, at present, we have only anecdotal information, it is possible that significant quantities of U.S.-bound drugs are involved.Sincerely,

William J. Clinton
President of the United States



1997
On November 5, 2005 the “Aruba Getagrip” blog reported, “Many of us are remember still that between the years 1997 and 2000, National Security under the direction of Martin Ras, sent a scream to Holland when he took notice of the corrupt and disastrous issues for Aruba at the highest levels of government. More still when Aruba was put on the list of High Risk Regions by U.S. president Bill Clinton.


Summer 1997
The “Trans National Institute” reported:

The Rothschilds of the Mafia on Aruba
Tom Blickman - TNI ResearcherTransnational Organized Crime Vol. 3, No. 2, Summer 1997
"A magnificent washing-machine is sold here, its trademark is Aruba. The machine is an Aruban-Colombian product, its model called Cartel. The brand is well-known for its good performance in the United States and Europe. It is recommended by former ministers, members of Parliament, owners of casinos, supermarkets, cosmetics manufacturers and importers of cars and batteries. The washing-machine fits everybody who has become inexplicably rich from one day to another."
The MPs of the Staten van Aruba – the Aruban Parliament – must have been bewildered when one of their own ministers smeared the good name of their island. Former minister Elio Nicolaas grins when he is reminded of his speech in 1989. (1) Finally someone had thrown a rock in the silent and complacent waters of the Caribbean tax-haven Aruba – a semi-independent part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. "I had to react," he says. "My own colleague, the Minister of Finance, denied money was laundered on the island." Nicolaas knew better. Prior to his political career he had been a police officer and had actually set up the anti-narcotics squad.
His denunciation incited strong objections in Parliament. Opposition-leader – and former Prime Minister – Henny Eman demanded his resignation. Nicolaas retorted by suggesting that Eman's election campaign was financed with drug money. Nicolaas thinks today nothing has really changed: "The island is still infested with 'narco-complacientes', people who benefit from the drug trade." Indeed, Eman is once more Prime Minister of Aruba. "Well, did you come to write stories about our pirates island?" he asks sarcastically when we walk to his office. (2) Eman has had enough of the 'mad stories' about the Caribbean island as a 'Mafia Nest'. They are not substantiated and damaging for Aruba's good name, foreign trade and the tourist-industry, he thinks.
"Aruba's geographical position is a blessing and a curse at the same time," says Eman, alluding to the pleasant climate which attracts thousands of tourists each year, and the unpleasant closeness of the Colombian and Venezuelan northern shores which makes it vulnerable for drug-traffickers. According to Eman, Aruba is burdened with the problem of other nations: "The drug trade is not Aruba's primary responsibility. The market is in Europe and the United States. It is not our fault they cannot control their borders, that Aruba is used as a transit point."
The US Government is not as dismissive as Mr Eman. Within three years Aruba rose from a 'medium risk' to a 'high risk' country in the State Department's annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Report. The island is used as a base for bulk transhipment of cocaine to the US and Europe, through its Free Trade Zone. Off-shore corporate banking facilities, the casino/resort complexes, high volume tourism, and a stable currency all make Aruba attractive to money laundering organizations. Eman considers these reports as too negative and suggests hat Aruba is in good company since "the US and Holland rank number one on the list as well."
The US is concerned about credible reports that some members of the Aruban government met regularly with individuals associated with drug trafficking and money laundering syndicates. In spite of, or perhaps because of, the denials by Aruba officials, the US remains convinced that entrenched money laundering organizations direct large cash deposits into land development and other construction projects on the island. (3) The Netherlands is equally worried. "I think we are going to loose it on Aruba," Arthur Docters van Leeuwen, the Dutch Attorney General, said about the counter-narcotics efforts on the island. Aruba is in the hands of some powerful families and Holland can't do anything about it, due to constitutional restraints. (4)
The reasons for Docters' pessimism were revealed when a confidential report on the Aruban Security Service – the Veiligheidsdienst Aruba (VDA) – leaked in the Dutch press. In October 1994 its director Martien Ras had sounded the alarm-bell. He had written to Docters, then chief of the Dutch security service, that democratically elected officials promoted the interests of private business-men to such an extent that Aruba's democratic institutions were in danger. (5)
Both the Dutch security service and the American CIA had assisted Ras with his investigations. Ras wrote to Docters because Eman – freshly re-elected as Prime Minister – demanded to see the VDA-files about Aruban entrepreneurs who Ras suspected of money laundering and linked to drug traffickers. The Dutch rapidly removed the files, but Ras had to quit his job. Since then he Ras has lived in hiding somewhere in Holland. His interim successor, a Dutch intelligence officer, confirmed his conclusions.
December 1996 President Clinton put Aruba on the list of Major Illicit Drug-transit Countries. (6) Aruba is now eligible for de-certification by the US Government. At the yearly certification scrutiny March 1997, however, Aruba was not decertified.
The First Independent State under Mafia Control
Aruba's reputation as a 'Mafia island' became public in March 1993 when it was described by the Italian daily Corriere della Sera as 'the first state to be bought by the bosses Cosa Nostra'. (7) The Sicilian Mafia clan of the families Cuntrera and Caruana allegedly had taken over the island. Between 1988 and 1992 they acquired 60 per cent of Aruba through investments in hotels, casino's and the election-campaign of a Prime Minister. Aruba looked set to be the first independent state under Mafia control.
At the time Aruba was set for independence from the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1996. Ten years before it had acquired a "status aparte" – a semi-autonomous status – within the realm. The Dutch consented to the Aruban wish for self-determination, but established a 10-year time period. Due to the reluctance of many Arubans, and anxiety with the Dutch government about the infiltration of organized crime on the island, independence never materialized. The US, France, the United Kingdom and Venezuela pressed the Dutch government to abandon its moves towards Aruban self-government, and the Netherlands complied. (8) Consequently, although the island is now handling its own internal affairs, foreign relations and defense remain a Dutch responsability.
Prime Minister Eman doesn't like to be reminded of the name Cuntrera – primarily because of his signature on the licence of Paolo and Giuseppe Cuntrera for their nightclub Visage in 1987. It keeps hurting him, even though he tries to dismiss it as "a very superseded story." According to Eman, at the time these people were honourable citizens in several countries, among others in Venezuela. In Aruba, their criminal activities were not known. Moreover, "when we learned who they really were, we expelled them”."
The issue also became highly politicized. The two main political parties – the Arubaanse Volkspartij (AVP, Aruban Peoples Party) led by Eman and the Moviemento Electoral di Pueblo (MEP, People's Electoral Movement) led by Nelson Oduber – accused each other of permitting the Cuntrera's to infest Aruba and both claim to have kicked them off the island. In reality, the Cuntrera's had left – temporarily – on their own in 1988.
In April 1988 Business Week published a story about the involvement of the family in a case of heroin smuggling from Thailand to Montreal, and their money laundering schemes in Canada. (9) The article and copies of the licence for the Cuntrera's signed by Eman, were distributed anonymously on the island, and caused a fierce political battle.
Eman still claims that the MEP-government which preceded his first government, already allowed the Cuntreras to establish the nightclub and that legally he couldn't do anything about it. But Eman's own Minister of Economic Affairs, Leonard Berlinski, in writing had refused a licence for Paolo and Giuseppe Cuntrera. Berlinski's officials advised him not to issue the permit because it was not in the public interest of Aruba, warning him "don't burn your fingers." Ironically, shortly after the licence was denied, Berlinski had to resign because of allegations of corruption. He was arrested but acquitted on appeal. In the meantime a new request for a licence was applied for – by notary Maria Albertina Eman, a sister of the Prime Minister. Eman, then Minister of Economic Affairs ad interim, approved the application in spite of repeated negative recommendations. (10) Berlinski contends that observers of these events can draw their own conclusions.
Eman's claim that the Cuntrera's were honourable citizens in several countries is not convincing. This was certainly not true in Italy, Canada and the United States. In 1983 an international arrest warrant for Paolo Cuntrera was issued by the Italian police, and in June 1985 Gerlando Caruana was caught smuggling heroin to Montreal. Assuming this escaped the attention of the Aruban authorities, closer at home in Venezuela, the Cuntrera's were exposed as mafiosi in 1984 – three years prior to permission for the Cuntrera nightclub. Their names, accompanied by photographs, made the headlines in the Venezuelan press. In addition, Aruban authorities knew – or at least should have known – of the involvement of the Cuntreras in cocaine traffic on the island. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) had followed Sabbatino Nicolucci, a suspected courier for Montreal Mafia boss Vito Rizzuto, to the island. When Canadian police-officers – accompanied by the Aruban chief of police – asked to look at Nicolucci's phone calls at the Holiday Inn it appeared he was not registered: the room was reserved and paid for by Pasquale Cuntrera. (11) Despite this incriminating evidence, which probably inspired the negative advice of Aruban officials, Prime Minister Eman gave the Cuntrera's permission to open a nightclub.
The Bankers of Cosa Nostra
The 'Rothschilds of the Mafia' or 'the bankers of Cosa Nostra' were the names given to the Cuntrera-Caruana Mafia-clan the Italian press. (12) A prosecuting judge was more precise, describing the clan as "a close wicker-work of blood-relations composed of family-nucleuses in different countries all over the world, joined with an equal wicker-work of economical and industrial connections, intended to improve their networks for international traffic in narcotics and money-laundering." (13)
The Cuntrera-Caruana clan specialized in laundering hundreds of millions of drug dollars. This may well have been why it had come to Aruba. The island is one of the many Caribbean tax-havens famous for their relaxed off-shore regulations popular at the shady side of the money business. In the 1980s the booming tourist-industry offered additional possibilities to re-invest drug profits. (14) It was entirely appropiate therefore when an Italian newspaper suggested that the sun never sets on the Cuntrera-Caruana narco-empire. The occasion for this was the arrest of three Cuntrera brothers (Pasquale, Paolo and Gaspare Cuntrera) at Rome's international airport in September 1992. (15) They had arrived from Caracas. The night before they had been secretly put on a plane to Rome, after the Venezuelan government had decided to expel them.
The Italian government had requested the Cuntrera brothers' extradition several times since a first arrest-warrant in 1983, but the clan seemed to have safeguarded its stay in Caracas through political connections. For a long time the Venezuelan government seemed uninterested in pursuing the brothers. In 1992, however, the tide turned. In May the brutal killing of the popular anti-mafia judge, Giovanni Falcone, in Sicily produced a public outcry in Italy and the government stepped up its battle against the Mafia. At the same time, the apparent protection of the Cuntrera-brothers in Venezuela dwindled.
President Carlos Andres Perez barely survived a coup of discontented military in February and faced allegations of corruption. A tough law-and-order Minister for Home Affairs was nominated. Diplomatic pressure from the US (where Pasquale Cuntrera was indicted on charges of heroin-smuggling) and Italy resulted in the expulsion of the three Cuntrera-brothers.
The arrest of the Cuntrera-brothers reverberated through Aruban politics. Parliament carried a motion concludeding that there existed secret ties between the Aruban Peoples Party and the Cuntrera-family. The former Premier, Henny Eman and his Minister of Justice Edgar Vos (both in the opposition at that time) were alleged to have given the clan "preferential treatment" and were asked "to leave the political arena." A parliamentary inquiry was asked for to uncover "the benefits which (Eman and Vos) acquired on account of the preferential treatment." (16) Eman and Vos, however, did not leave the arena and subsequently nobody has heared about a parliamentary inquiry. Eman became Prime Minister once more and 'Watty' Vos the Minister of Justice (just recently their cabinet fell). The Minister of Health in Eman's new cabinet is Mrs. Lilly Beke, family doctor of Paolo Cuntrera when he stayed at the island. Although Mrs. Beke claims to "treat people, not names", but many wonder why she consulted Paolo Cuntrera in Caracas in a restaurant. (17)
A Transnational Criminal Holding
"The Cuntrera's and Caruana's were and probably still are leading international drug traffickers, and they control a significant part of the money laundering networks," noted prosecuting judge Gioacchino Natoli from Palermo. He led the prosecution during the two-year trial against several members of the clan. (18) In January 1996 Pasquale Cuntrera was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment for associazione mafioso (mafia conspiracy) and drug trafficking. (19) Gaspare and Paolo Cuntrera both received 13 years.
Natoli subsequently became one of the prosecutors in the case against Italy's former Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, accused of collusion with the Mafia. Being in the front line in the fight against Cosa Nostra, means that Natoli is sealed off from society, escorted and guarded 24-hours a day. Natoli's office reflects his almost monastic isolation. Piles of files wait for further study and elaboration. Palermo's intense sunlight and eternal traffic-bustle are shut off. Broad shouldered plain-clothes policemen guard the corridors of this enclave in Palermo's Tribunal.
Behind Natoli hangs a frame with a potograph of two man jesting. The photo's gaiety is in sharp contrast with the tragic fate of the men – Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. Both were killed while fighting the Mafia. Their photo is a reminder of the danger and necessity of Natoli's everyday job. He worked with both men. As an assistant to Falcone he helped to prepare the indictment against Cuntrera-Caruana, back in 1989.
Falcone, however, did not live to see the result of that indictment. His car was bombed near the Sicilian town of Capaci in May 1992 – a few days after he had initiated a new extradition procedure against the Cuntrera-brothers. Falcone, his wife and three escorting policemen were killed in the blast. Cosa Nostra eliminated its principal opponent, who was not only responsible for the conviction of hundreds of its leaders at the Maxi Trial in 1987, but was also the impending national Anti-Mafia Prosecutor.
According to Natoli, "the clan is best described as an international holding ... a holding which secures certain services for the Sicilian Cosa Nostra as a whole: drug-trafficking routes and channels for money-laundering." The families Cuntrera and Caruana are the nucleus of the clan. They are relatives; they inter-married like medieval feudal lords to strengthen their criminal alliance. Consequently, the clan is very compact with great cohesion. Natoli describes it as "a very tight knit family group of men-of-honor, not only joined by Mafia bonds, but also byties of blood." The strength of this group – apart from the numbers and solid relationships – is that it moved to the nerve-centres of drug trafficking in North and South America.
Within Cosa Nostra few know who they are, but all know what they are. "Everybody knew that Cuntrera-Caruana were the undisputed controllers of the Canadian and Venezuelan market," says Gaspare Mutolo, a pentito (repentant) who himself was heavily involved in the drug trade, but became a state witness in 1992. (20) "In Cosa Nostra it was generally known that they were involved in drug trafficking at a very high level," says Mutolo. Indeed, the names Cuntrera and Caruana were – and probably still are – a guarantee of a good deal. Moreover, the clan has scarcely been touched by the Sicilian Cosa Nostra's internal power-struggles, like the one which brought Totò Riina and his Corleonesi to power in the 1980s. One reason is that the Cuntrera-Caruana clan had moved abroad. Another is that it positioned itself at an equal distance to the different factions in the Sicilian Mafia. As Natoli explains: "Their interest is the drug trade, an activity which runs right across different interests and factions. That is why they have to keep a central position and be independent from whatever 'political' wing that rules Cosa Nostra."
Others are Allied with Them
"The difference between the Cuntrera-Caruana clan and other Mafia families is that they have a key-position in the drug trade and money laundering for Cosa Nostra," says Alessandro Pansa, head of the Economic Crime Section of the Servizio centrale operativo (Sco) of the Italian National Police. (21) Pansa is one of Italy's leading experts in international criminal investigations and money laundering. Fifteen years ago, as one of the members of a newly formed crack team of investigators who became the confidants of judge Falcone, Pansa pioneered the use of computers to track the drug proceeds. In his view, the clan is the international transport service and the launderette of Cosa Nostra. It brings together the producers and distributers of narcotics. "Almost all the money of the Sicilian Mafia in North-America to purchase heroin and the resulting proceeds went through their hands." The Cunteras and Caruanas are necessary and irreplaceable for every other Mafia family. Their services are indispensable. Consequently, "the others are allied with them." (22)
It was Pansa who discovered the clan, almost by accident. One in hundreds of tapped phone conversations alerted him. In 1982 he was investigating the Italian end of a heroin smuggling network to the United States, later known as the Pizza Connection. The Italian police was following the movements of Giuseppe Bono, the middleman between the American buyers of the Gambino and Bonanno Family and the Sicilian clans who organized the heroin traffic to the US, and had tapped his telephone. Most of the time Bono did not say much, but suddenly he became very talkative to an elderly Sicilian woman. Bono respectfully expressed his condolences with the demise of her husband. Pansa wondered why Bono, an arrogant high-ranking boss within Cosa Nostra, "became suddenly so submissive ... that woke us up."
It turned out that Bono was calling a number registered to Pasquale Cuntrera in Ostia Lido, a sea-side resort near Rome. The deceased was Liborio Cuntrera, the eldest Cuntrera-brother, who had died in London, where he had settled in 1976. Pansa started to investigate this little known cluster of Mafia men from the distant, ignored south of Sicily. In the event it took him ten years before he finally arrested the Cuntrera brothers at Rome's Fiumicino airport when they were expelled from Venezuela in 1992. "They really look like Godfathers from the movie-screen, with their painted hair, gold watches and white shoes," Pansa says. But he acknowledges that, in spite of their appearance they are not be underestimated as "they are very good entrepreneurs".
Murderers, Cattle-thieves and Arsonists
The family moved outside Sicily some 30 years ago. The days when Pasquale Cuntrera and his brother-in-law Leonardo Caruana were indicted for murder and such old style rural Mafia crimes as cattle-thieving and arson are long gone. (23) Now they head a transnational criminal enterprise involved in the brokerage of all kinds of narcotics and laundering the proceeds.
Both the Cuntreras and the Caruanas were born in Siculiana, a small village on the south coast of Sicily in the province Agrigento. Already in the 1930's, during the Fascist repression of the Mafia, Giuseppe Caruana, the eldest of the Caruana-brothers, was denounced as a mafioso. He was rebuked as an ozioso ('a lazy bones') suspected of living from 'the proceeds of criminal activity'.
Siculiana had been ruled by mafiosi for years, concluded the Agrigento Court in 1966. Giuseppe and Leonardo Caruana and Pasquale Cuntrera exploited every economic activity in the village and its surrounding communities. They had created a atmosphere of omertà with violence and intimidation making sure that no one dared to denounce them. The Court thought it best to expel them from the village.
The banishment was the result of stepped-up repression from the Italian authorities after a car-bomb killed seven policemen in the Palermo suburb, Ciaculli, in 1963. The bomb was intended to kill Palermo Mafia boss Salvatore 'Cicchiteddu' Greco, target of a rival Mafia-faction during yet another internal power-struggle. The killing of the policemen, however, provoked a wave of public indignation – similar to the later one when Falcone and Borsellino were murdered – that forced the Italian government to act against Cosa Nostra. The government resorted to a measure of the Fascist period: soggiorno obbligato (an internal banishment). To disconnect the mafiosi from their strongholds in Sicily, a forced deportation from their power bases was imposed. Hundreds of mafiosi were banned to locations elsewhere in Italy, mostly in the North. Many choose to leave the country instead. Pasquale Cuntrera and Leonardo Caruana moved to Montreal in Canada, while Giuseppe Caruana preferred Rio de Janeiro, where the now 86-year old family boss still resides in good health.
Unwillingly, the Italian government with its measure of internal banishment caused the spread of Cosa Nostra not only to the North of the country – its financial and business center – as an Italian Parliamentary Antimafia Commission would conclude ten years later, but also to the rest of the world. Many of the banned mafiosi emerged as the hard core of the heroin business in North America in the 1970s and 1980s.
Five Decades in the Narcotics Business
When and how the Cuntrera-Caruana clan became involved in drug trafficking is unknown. According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) the family was part of heroin-smuggling networks to the US the 1940s onwards. Their names appeared at investigations in such famous cases as the French Connection in the 1970s and the Pizza Connection in the 1980s. (24)
A good guess would be that they were introduced by the notorious Sicilian-American gangster and associate of Lucky Luciano, Nicola Gentile. 'Zu Cola' had also been born in Siculiana, but moved to the US at the turn of the century. In 1937 he was caught red-handed trafficking in narcotics, but – on the order of his American bosses – had jumped bail and returned to Sicily. (25)
In Sicily Gentile rose to a position as 'capo'. After the invasion in 1943, He helped the military set up its civil administration (AMGOT) in the Agrigento province and became involved in intelligence and the Sicilian separatist movement. Later he became a important canvasser for politicians from the Christian-democratic Party, who quarrelled for his support. (26)
When Lucky Luciano was extradited to Italy in 1946 he once again teamed up with Gentile in organizing drug routes to the US Gentile had very good connections with well-known drug traffickers on Sicily, which he may have organized himself. His son was married to the daughter of Pietro Davì, one of the leading figures in the illegal tobacco and drug trade in Palermo in the 1950s. (27)
Several intertwining Sicilian networks were running heroin to the US. They had the same source – suppliers from the Corsican underworld in Marseilles with their high quality laboratories – and the same destination: the North American consumer market. After the War the US expelled dozens of Italo-American Mafiosi besides Luciano. These so-called 'undesirables' became the inter-oceanic link, and stimulated the metamorphosis of the Sicilian Mafia from a backward rural power-system into a modern protection and smuggling industry.
One of the protagonists was Giovanni Mira, a Palermo based drug trafficker, but born in Siculiana. Mira knew Gentile, and he was spotted by the police with Carmelo Caruana in Milan, where they probably met their Corsican heroin supplier. Both were linked to the so-called Caneba-network, which smuggled heroin to the US through Canada from 1951 until 1960 when the police disrupted this route. Mira was sending suitcases with tens of kilos of heroin to a certain Settimo Accardo in Canada. Another plot, according to Interpol, was to hide heroin in cans of anchovies. In 1960, Mira together with other high-rollers in the trade – Pietro Davì, Rosario Mancino (one of Luciano's lieutenants in Palermo) and Angelo La Barbera (a nephew of Davì) – traveled to Mexico and Canada to explore new drug routes. (28)
The Cuntrera-Caruana clan in all probability was involved in the trafficking networks. Some family-members had moved to Montreal in the 1950s. Canadian immigration records show Pasquale and Liborio Cuntrera arrived in 1951 and acquired Canadian nationality in 1957. (29) They moved up and down setting up base at both sides of the Atlantic.
Antonio Calderone – a mafioso from Catania who turned state-witness – recounts having first heard of the Cuntreras and Caruanas in 1968: "Giovanni Mira, an old uomo d'onore from Siculiana who was serving his soggiorno obbligato near Catania, told me they were drug traffickers and that they were very rich."(30) According to the Cuntreras own story they made their fortune in Canada. They worked hard, starting as snow-ploughers and barbers, saving enough money to start their first shop and pizzeria.
From the French to the Pizza Connection
The repression caused by the Ciaculli Massacre disarranged the Sicilian drug trade to the United States. Mafiosi were banned, arrested and incarcerated. Control over the trade fell to the hands of a few fugitives: Pietro Davì, Salvatore Greco 'l'ingegnere', Salvatore Greco 'Cicchiteddu', Tommaso Buscetta and Gaetano Badalamenti. (31) All of them acquainted with Cuntrera and Caruana.
Supergrass Tommaso Buscetta met the clan in the winter of 1969 in Montreal. Buscetta defected from Cosa Nostra in 1984. He was the first high-ranking mafioso to turn state-witness, and enabled Falcone to indict the entire summit of Cosa Nostra. Buscetta stayed at Pasquale Cuntrera's home recovering from a venereal disease. The Cuntreras were introduced to him as uomini d'onore (men-of-honour). When Buscetta met them they were already very rich. He soon discoverd the source of their affluence. At the Palermo Trial against Cuntrera and Caruana in 1995, Buscetta declared that Pasquale Cuntrera had told him they were dealing in heroin, and that their supplier was Pippo Bono – at that time unknown to the police – who arranged things in Italy. Buscetta says their involvement started after the Ciaculli Massacre, when the heroin routes had been disrupted. (32)
Buscetta denies having worked with the clan in the heroin business. The only thing he smuggled with them was another white pulverized stuff: powdered milk. In fact Buscetta denies having ever been implicated in the drug trade despite all the evidence to the contrary. At the time he met the Cuntreras, Buscetta was known to every law enforcement agency as one of the most notorious worldwide drug traffickers. (33)
One of Buscetta's partners, Pino Catania, ratted on him in much the same way Buscetta himself would do 10 years later. Catania turned state witness when he was arrested in the US in 1973 on heroin charges. He confessed to having been implicated in a heroin smuggling ring that transported 330 kilograms to the US and Canada in 3 years. His partners were Buscetta and a certain Carlo Zippo. (34)
Police investigations had already identified the Zippo-Buscetta network in 1969, later rebaptized as the French Connection. (35) They had also stumbled on a network involving some of the Cuntreras and Caruanas. The networks worked with the same people. A BNDD report summarizing the Zippo-Buscetta network identified Liborio Cuntrera, Giovanni Caruana and phone-calls from Cuntrera's partner Nick Rizzuto to Catania's company in Mexico and Zippo's firm Brasitalia Import-Export Company in New York. (36)
Buscetta had met Rizzuto at Cuntrera's house and both were partners smuggling 'powdered milk'. Buscetta's son Benedetto – who was dragged into the network and arrested – confessed he overheared his father talking to a certain 'Monoco': "Are you interested in 30 pairs of shoes for 14 dollars a pair?" Buscetta had asked, in the typical code-language used for heroin deals. (37)
Benedetto didn't know 'Monoco's' real name, but it could well have been yet another associate of the Cuntrera-Caruana clan, Santo Caldarella. Caldarella was nick-named 'u Monacu' or 'Monoco' ('the monk') because in his younger days he had begged on the streets of Siculiana. During the Cuntrera-Caruana trial Buscetta recalled that he had met Caldarella during his stay at Pasquale Cuntrera's place.
There are more indications of the close relationship between Buscetta and Pasquale Cuntrera, the clan member Buscetta was most intimate with. When Buscetta travelled to Italy in the summer of 1970, he did so on a false passport provided by Pasquale Cuntrera. (38) The Zippo-Buscetta French Connection network was related to an illegal-alien racket. Sicilians were smuggled into Canada and the US and most of them also brought in narcotics.
When the organization of Zippo and Buscetta was dismantled in 1972, the Cuntrera-Caruana network was not. Just like other partners in the network – Giuseppe Bono in Italy and the Eagle Cheese Company of the Casamento brothers – they would all turn up ten years later in de Pizza Connection. In both cases pizza parlours were important distribution centres.
The French Connection was a prelude to the Pizza Connection. In both cases the trade was organized by Sicilian men of honor, and not American made-members. Heroin wholesaling in the US was firmly in the hands of a Sicilian network, which supplied American Cosa Nostra Families at the distribution level. The Sicilians had the licence of the American bosses who 'franchised' the import to them. (39) The Cuntrera-Caruana-Bono combination supplied the market in the 1970s and kept on supplying in 1980s.
Protecting the Heroin Racket
The Cuntrera-Caruana clan automatically grew while other narcotics networks were dismantled. The clan started to diversify and spread their organization, evolving into a transnational crime corporation. One of the reasons that the Cuntrera-Caruana clan remained unnoticed for such a long time (and when they were noted were disregarded) is that although, structurally they were at the center of things, geographically they were at the outskirts: they did not come from Palermo, and they did not move to New York.
As law enforcement works primarily on a national basis, the clan was always dismissed as some kind of 'outside intruder' in local crime. International law enforcement cooperation is a highly complicated and tiresome matter. Given limited resources, transnational criminal organisations were inevitably made secondary to the local situation – at least for a long time. Only more recently have international inquiries been given priority.
Another reason for the elusiveness of the clan is that it operated as what criminologist call an 'enterprise syndicate', as opposed to a 'power syndicate'. The clan mainly focused on making money through the narcotics business, and left the criminal power politics to others. The members worked very secretly, not imposing themselves with overt acts of violence. Ultimately, though their increasing prominence made them an inevitable target of law enforcement. (40)
When the clan had to move to Canada half-way through the 1960s they found shelter with the Montreal Cotroni Family, a sub-division of the New York Bonanno Family. The logic of Mafia hierarchy required the clan to be subordinate to the Cotroni bosses. These bosses soon discovered they had lost control over their supposed Sicilian underlings who had set up their own narcotics racket. When Cotroni boss Paolo Violi tried to re-establish his leadership, he was eliminated. (41)
The implication is that although the distinction between 'enterprise' and 'power' syndicates may be useful as an analytical tool for the inner workings of crime organizations and their outside relations, where control of a criminal enterprise is concerned it is less significant. Running a profitable narcotics network means economic strength, and that means power. When other criminal power brokers try to control the enterprise – without comparable resources – they may find themselves at the loosing end of the battle. Violi found this out in 1978. Perhaps he lacked the right connections and ruthlessness. Whatever the case, Montreal became a stronghold of the clan. The present-day Montreal Mafia-boss, Vito Rizzuto, is closely connected to the Cuntrera-Caruana organisation. His father, Nick Rizzuto, is the godfather of one of Pasquale Cuntrera's daughters.
Violi's nominal overlord in New York, Bonanno Family boss Carmine Galante, received the same fate in July 1979, when he tried to muscle in at the heroin racket in New York, after his release from prison. His killing was connected with the Sicilian monopoly in the heroin racket. After the liquidation of Galante, FBI files showed that a certain Gerlando Sciascia became head of the Bonanno Family. (42) Sciascia was born in Cattolica Eraclea, just like Nick Rizzuto and others of Cuntrera-Caruana Montreal branch of the clan. (43) Sciascia had close relations with Giuseppe Bono and Sal Catalano, key figure in the Pizza Connection. According to RCMP intelligence officer Yvon Thibault, Sciascia, in Bonanno's name, acted as the liaison between the Sicilians of New York and those in Montreal. (44) With Montreal mobster Joe Lo Presti (also born in Cattolica Eraclea), Sciascia supplied the New York Gambino Family with heroin from the Cuntrera-Caruana clan. (45)
It remains unclear whether there is a connection between the Violi and Galante murder. The exact role of the Cuntrera-Caruana clan in the overall control of the heroin supply line to New York is also unclear. There is evidence though that the clan had considerable clout in the matter.
The Missing Link: Venezuela
Around 1982 there was no denying that the Cuntrera-Caruana families were key players in the narcotics business. Police on both sides of the ocean met them in investigations. The Italian Criminalpol and the Venezuelan police listened to their telephones, ignorant of their common interest. The FBI spotted their partner Giuseppe Bono in New York chatting with Pizza Connection protagonists Joe Ganci and Sal Catalano, while the Italians thought Bono controlled things in Milan.
DEA agents trailed their old acquaintance of the French Connection days, Nick Rizzuto, in Milan, telephoning Bono and sending containers to Canada. Pasquale Cuntrera was intermittently in Caracas and Rome (where he owned an apartment at the sea-side resort Ostia). Alfonso Caruana was spotted in Lugano, Switzerland, handling the money with Sicilian boss Antonio Salamone – a relative of the Grecos everybody presumed dead – coming in from Brazil.
Wiretaps gave a glimpse of Paolo Cuntrera's son-in-law Nino Mongiovì moving around in Honduras and Miami. He had obtained a monopoly for "two containers a month with a distributor in Florida”." (46) They were all connected to Michele Zaza and his crew of skilled smugglers from the Camorra organization in Naples. According to the FBI this network smuggled 3 metric tons of heroin a year to the US. (47)
Only when the Americans and Italians pooled their findings did they grasp what was going on. In 1983 the Italian police summarized their investigations in the Bono+159 report. The report identified Cuntrera and Caruana as the pivot of the well organized network moving heroin up to the US and the money down. It was the first time the clan was thoroughly examined. In fact, the police had uncovered part of the supply line for the Pizza Connection. But, while the US Pizza Connection trial resulted in the conviction of a significant segment of the network the authorities didn't find the real link between North-America and Sicily. (48) That missing link was to be found in Venezuela, where the Cuntrera-Caruana clan had set up their headquarters at the start of the 1970s, buying hotels and founding a string of businesses in Caracas and Valencia.
The most intriguing of the dozens Cuntrera-Caruana enterprises was a cattle-breeding company on an extended ranch in the state of Barinas, close to the Colombian border. It had its own private airstrip. A special task-force of the Venezuelan intelligence-service DISIP looked at this farm called Ganaderia Rio Zapa, established in 1971. (49) The shareholders of the firm represented the creme-de-la-creme of Mafia heroin-movers in those days:
Salvatore 'Cicchiteddu' Greco, the former head of the overall Commission of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, and one of the pioneers in the international heroin trade (50);
Nick Rizzuto, a lieutenant in the Montreal-based Cotroni Family, but highly independent and in fact subordinate to the Sicilian Mafia (i.e. Cuntrera-Caruana);
Antonio Napoli, a high-ranking made member of the New York Gambino Family and 'the biggest mover of junk to the United States' (51);
John Gambino, a relative of Carlo Gambino and boss of the Sicilian faction of the New York Gambino Family (52);
Brothers Angelo and Francesco Mongiovì, figure-heads of the Cuntreras in Caracas and Italy's financial centre Milan. According to a DEA report, Angelo's son Nino Mongiovì married Paolo Cuntrera's daughter and was the 'super manager for drugs of all kinds passing through Miami'. (53)
The DEA spotted them investigating the Napoli brothers of the Gambino Family in New York. Antonio Napoli had moved to Venezuela and was a partner in a Cuntrera business. At the time DEA headquarters figured the trail irrelevant; nevertheless, special agent Tom Tripodi was sent to Caracas. DEA-analyst Mona Ewell told reporter Claire Sterling that Tripodi "came back with the whole thing." (54)
"We saw the Cuntreras and the Caruanas. The security around their homes was incredible... They had control in Venezuela like you wouldn't believe... We saw their businesses, all fronts for paper-shuffling. What these people handled was the money. Their names had been coming up for years on the money. Historically, they worked the money. They did it for cocaine as well as heroin ... It was a tremendous operation, and it was going on a long, long time... In my opinion, that's still the key. They're the people with the money; they've been in the business of narcotics the longest."
The implication, as Italian investigator Alessandro Pansa has noted is that "Venezuela has its own Cosa Nostra family as if it is Sicilian territory ... Until this day, the structure and hierarchy of the Mafia has been entirely reproduced in Venezuela ... The clan has direct links with the ruling Commission of the Sicilian Mafia, and are acknowledged by the American Cosa Nostra." Pansa claims that they are the funnel for the Gambino Family. Indeed, according to Tommaso Buscetta, it was the all-powerful New York Mafia boss Carlo Gambino himself who sponsored the acknowledgement of the Cuntrera-Caruana Family. (55)
Global Operations
The Montreal-New York and Caracas-Miami connections proved to be the gateway for narcotics to the world's biggest consumer-market. From its Venezuelan base the Cuntrera-Caruana clan supplied whatever drug was in demand – heroin, cocaine and cannabis. As their importance grew, however, the clan finally started to get to the attention of law enforcement agencies around the world.
Arrest warrants began to pile up. The 1983 Bono+159 report resulted in the first ones for the Cuntrera brothers and Alfonso Caruana, among others. Buscettas revelations in 1984 resulted in a new one for Pasquale Cuntrera, followed by yet another set in 1985. Italian Mafia-prosecutor Giovanni Falcone again indicted the clan in 1989, when two influential clan-members were arrested in Germany.
At the time the family's estimated worth was US$ 500 million. It was estimated by those investigating the clan's activities that it had shipped at least 700 kilo's of heroin and 70 metric tons of hashish with a total value of 700 million US dollars. Already then the Italian press warned Prime Minister Henny Eman of Aruba to remember the name Cuntrera and Caruana. If not, he might find himself a prisoner of Cosa Nostra instead of independent of the Netherlands. (56)
The investigation only looked at the years 1978-85, and the figures proved to be conservative. Subsequent evidence revealed that the investigators had missed a lot of what was going on. In 1992 pentito Gaspare Mutolo, Cosa Nostra's contact with Thai traffickers, disclosed massive heroin transports at the start of the 1980s. In 1981, Mutolo organized a 400 kilo shipment to the US. The Cuntrera-Caruana clan received half of the load, while John Gambino's crew took care of the other 200 kilos. When the money of the first deal came back, Mutolo immediately started to arrange another similar transport. (57) The shipments were financed by consortium of Sicilian Mafia clans. They had organized a pool to provide the money to buy the merchandise from Thai suppliers. The system in the heroin-business was that every Mafia family could invest in a shipment if it had the money. Each step in the different stages between buying and selling the commodity was payed along the way. The Cuntreras and Caruanas were the trusted buyers who supplied the market in North America.
Mutolo was arrested in 1982 before he could finish the second shipment. But, he assured the judge during the Cuntrera Trial, the shipment arrived. His Thai supplier Koh Bak Kin was arrested when yet another shipment of 233 kilos was intercepted in the Suez Canal in May 1983. A few months later, Alfonso Caruana was in Bangkok with relative Giuseppe Cuffaro to set up a new supply line. (58)
This time the clan was caught red-handed when British Customs & Excise and the Canadian RCMP seized a shipment of 58 kilos of heroin in Montreal in June 1985. Principal suspects were co-mafioso Francesco Di Carlo of the Altofonte clan, who was arrested in the UK, and Gerlando Caruana in Montreal. The subsequent inquiry disclosed that there had been more shipments. Besides heroin, loads of hashish were smuggled in as well. (59)
Alfonso Caruana and his brother Pasquale had settled in Woking in 1982, a Sicilian enclave in the 'stockbroker belt' near London. They worked closely with Francesco Di Carlo, who had created a complete smuggling infrastructure in England: he owned a hotel, travel agencies and import-export companies. Both Caruanas managed to leave England before they could be arrested.
Giuseppe Cuffaro was the travelling salesman of the clan. The records of his American Express Card show the international scale of dealings. Between 1980 and 1985 Cuffaro travelled up and down Montreal, Zürich, Caracas, Miami, Aruba, Lugano, Rome, Nassau (Bahamas), New York, Hollywood (Florida), New Delhi, Atlanta, London, Rio de Janeiro, Antigua, Palermo, Singapore, Bangkok and Geneva. In Thailand he married a Thai girl, opened bank accounts and negotiated with their Thai supplier Bang Khampay.
The seizure in 1985 apparently disrupted the flood for a while. Mutolo recalls that he was approached by Giuseppe Bono's associate Gaetano Fidanzati during the Maxi Trial against the Sicilian Cosa Nostra in Palermo in 1986. Fidanzati asked if he could find some more Thai heroin. If so, Fidanzati said, "we'll send it to Canada, to Cuntrera and Caruana, everything you want, either a 100 or 200 kilos, every amount you can send them in Canada, because they control everything over there." (60)
In June 1988 30 kilos of heroin were seized in a shipment of jade rocks from Thailand in a factory near Windsor at the US-Canadian border. The factory was owned by Cuffaro's brother-in-law, John Laudicina. Consignements from the same shipping-agent in Thailand had previously been seized earlier in Chicago, New York and in the Netherlands, but no one knew who had organized them. In the factory more hollowed out jade rocks indicated it wasn't the first load.
Meanwhile Giuseppe Cuffaro and Pasquale Caruana were in Germany organizing another network on the European continent to replace the route through England that had been dismantled. The German Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) was only just in time to stop them. In November 1988, the German police arrested Pasquale Caruana and Giuseppe Cuffaro near the Swiss border.
BKA investigations revealed an extensive network. Caruana and Cuffaro were supported by relatives and some of the many fellow-villagers who had emigrated to Germany in the 1960s and 1970s. Cuffaro had travelled for months through Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium in rented cars: 33,000 kilometres in 145 days, an average of 227 a day. He spent his days in the plush spa and casino-resort Baden Baden and Germany's financial center, Frankfurt. In addition, he flew up and down from Frankfurt to Bangkok several times, and to Montreal and Caracas. When the BKA finished the investigation it concluded "there are indications that Caruana and Cuffaro were planning to settle in Germany to lead drug trafficking from South-East Asia and to put into circulation the resulting profits through investments in legal businesses." (61) Cuffaro and Pasquale Caruana were extradited to Italy and convicted in 1991.
Dirty Money Really Smells
"It didn't smell right," a bank-clerk told prosecutor Gioacchino Natoli when he heard her in Montreal during a rogatory investigation, following the arrest of Caruana and Cuffaro. Natoli still recalls the event with surprise. (62) The dirty money the clan laundered through several Canadian banks really stank. "It smelled musty." The cash was all in small bills of two, five or ten dollars, the typical denomination of drug transactions on the street.
The bulk of the evidence used by Falcone to indict the Cuntrera-Caruana clan in 1989 was gathered by one single policeman from Montreal. Sergeant Marc Bourque of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police was appointed to investigate the financial aspects after the seizure of 58 kilo of heroin in 1985.
One of the persons under arrest was Gerlando Caruana. When Bourque wanted to look into Caruana's bank accounts, an employee said he would not find much there, but he should look at the accounts of Gerlando's brother, Alfonso Caruana. (63) What Bourque found there would keep him busy for the next five years. He code-named his investigation Operation Pilgrim – and a pilgrimage it proved to be. Bourque wandered through the international financial worl; he heard 300 witnesses in nine countries, his dossier amounted to 3,600 pages. Bourque laid bare the money laundering system of the clan in Montreal – although whether he found all the money, nobody knows.
In one bank alone Bourque traced nearly 16 million US dollars laundered through accounts of Alfonso Caruana. Every week a couple of Sicilians entered the branch of the City & District Bank in the Montreal suburb Dollard-des-Ormeaux carrying hockey-bags filled with half a million in cash. The tellers spent a half day counting the small bills. The clan brought in its dirty dollars and walked out with clean bank drafts. Thirty-six million US dollars ended up in Swiss bank-accounts which were used to pay the Sicilian heroin suppliers. (64) The dollars the clan transported to Canada were enough to supply the Montreal money-exchange market with its weekly requisite of US cash. Bourque could trace some US$ 50 million laundered by the clan through 4 Canadian banks from 1978 until 1984.
When Bourque presented his case to the Justice Department he was told that it would be discarded: it was deemed too expensive and too intricate. His pioneering investigation never reached a Canadian court. The Department had neither the time nor the money to prosecute the case. The mere summoning of the witnesses alone would cost four or five million dollars.
"Money doesn't just fall of the trees," says Bourque. "There is no legitimate business in Montreal which generates half a million every week, except the drug business." He is disgusted with the collaboration of Canadian banks. They earned some 4 to 5 percent on the transactions. The banks must have been aware of the shady backgrounds. After a while they all discreetly showed the Italians the door. But the clan always found a new financial institution to continue their affairs, carefully planning its steps. The bank branches it selected had Italian-born directors, no doubt more sensitive to the ways and means of the Mafia. Aldo Tucci, the director of the City & District branch, was completely integrated in the clan's system. He set up front store companies and neglected his work for the bank. Eventually Tucci was fired.
The Italian judicature very much appreciated the results of Sergeant Bourque's investigation, piecing it together with evidence they gathered during the Italian inquiry of the Pizza Connection. Bourque's evidence was subsequently used in the trials against Cuntrera-Caruana family members.
Bookkeeping is a Dangerous Business
The Italian community abroad is vulnerable to infiltration by its criminal countrymen. That doesn't mean that every Sicilian is a mafioso. Far from it. The most arduous mafia-fighters, like Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, are often Sicilian. Nevertheless, mafiosi use the Italian communities to hide in, especially when they are from the same village or region on Sicily.
On a visit to Siculiana – the village on the south coast of Sicily where the Cuntreras and Caruanas were born – an elderly villager who spent most of his working life in Germany told me the story of how he was approached by a Cuntrera to 'lend' him his son. The man who had known the family when they still lived in Siculiana, did not think it was a good idea. Why, he would not tell. Nevertheless, it was clear what we were talking about.
Siculiana once counted 12,000 inhabitants; now there are only 5,000 left. During the 1950s and 1960s the village emptied, the men moved to Belgium, Germany, England, Canada, Venezuela, Brazil. Most were merely trying to make a living; others went for more sinister reasons. Some, like Alfonso Gagliano, representative in the Canadian Federal Parliament for Montreal's 'Little Italy' Saint Leonard, rose to prominent positions.
The accountant Gagliano is a loyal supporter of Canada's Prime-Minister Jean Chrétien. Gagliano organized the Liberal Party's fund raising for the 1993 election-campaign. He was a candidate for a position in the new government of Mr Chrétien. The RCMP is asked to screen every probable future minister, and Mr Gagliano didn't quite pass the test. (65) The Montreal daily La Presse revealed why: Gagliano's accountancy firm kept the books of Agostino Cuntrera, a nephew of Pasquale Cuntrera and implicated in the murder of Paolo Violi, boss of the local Cotroni-family, in 1978. The murder was a sign that the Sicilian clan had taken over control in Montreal. Agostino Cuntrera was never convicted; he struck a deal with the Canadian Justice Department.
Asked about his relationship with Agostino Cuntrera, Gagliano said: "Mr Cuntrera is an acquaintance. We both come from Siculiana. I met him during a engagement in a church. He came to me in the 1970's when he wanted me as his bookkeeper for his restaurant." Gagliano et Cie kept Agostino Cuntrera as a client after his complicity in the Violi-murder was revealed. Agostino Cuntrera and Gagliano saw each other occasionally during marriages and activities of the Association de Siculiana, a cultural association founded by Mr Gagliano, who was its first president. Some years after Mr Gagliano's chairmanship, Agostino Cuntrera became president of the association.
Nor was Agostino Cuntrera the only client of Gagliano. Another was Dima Messina, the financial aid of Montreal Mafia-boss Vito Rizzuto. An RCMP investigation showed that Messina laundered 22 million Canadian dollars for Rizzuto in 1986-88. Rizzuto's Ferrari Testarossa (a 250,000 dollar Italian sports car) was registered under Messina's name.
During the controlled delivery of 58 kilos of heroin to Montreal in 1985 – the RCMP and British Customs were aware of the traffic and closely watched the transactions – one of the traffickers, Filippo Vaccarello, and an unidentified person, were observed entering the office of Mr Gagliano before the heroin arrived. After leaving the office Vaccarello proceeded with a tour of notorious bars well-known as selling points for heroin.
Bookkeeping proves to be a sensitive business for a politician. When the matter was discussed in Parliament after La Presse disclosed the facts, Premier Chrétien declared: "This Parliament would be much better off if we had more Gagliano's." (66)
Face to Face with Don Pasquale
"We never talked about heroin." DEA Special Agent John Costanzo is recalling his meeting with Pasquale Cuntrera. (67) After the Pizza Connection case the DEA understood the importance of the clan. While analyst Ewell had encountered much opposition at DEA headquarters in 1982, the powerful anti-narcotics agency finally targeted the clan some five years later.
"We talked world politics, economics, but never even mentioned the word heroin," says Costanzo. After 18 months of undercover work, codenamed Operation Wiseguy, Costanzo sat face-to-face with the capo famiglia in Caracas – an easy-going, well-dressed, low key gentleman. "He looked like my grandfather," says Costanzo. "He painted his hair pitch black, they all paint their hair – but it was very clear who and what he was, when he entered a room."
Don Pasquale did not know Costanzo's real profession. He thought he was dealing with Don Vincenzo, boss of a New York crime family. "At a certain point in the conversation he would say: 'If I can help you, where can I find you'. And then 'maybe I can do you a favour, or you can do me a favour'. Next was 'if I can get you packages where do you want them'. That was all, that meant there was a deal." The negotiations were smooth. It was very uncomplicated, just like the phone call in which they finally settled a heroin delivery. According to Costanzo, "There was no problem. In five minutes we struck a five million dollar deal, and most of the time we spent figuring out when we would do it."
Costanzo could lure Pasquale into a deal, but he couldn't catch him. Pasquale sent his right-hand man Ignazio Fiannaca to New York to settle the deal. Fiannaca and his accomplices were arrested in April 1990 with the 20 kilos of heroin Costanzo had offered Pasquale Cuntrera. Pasquale himself was high and dry in Caracas, not impressed with the indictment. Operation Wiseguy had got the DEA very close to Pasquale Cuntrera, but not close enough. He wouldn't think of leaving Venezuela.
The pressure was mounting though. In Venezuela, people protested against the presence of the Cuntreras. Representative Vladimir Gessen – head of the Venezuelan Anti-Narcotics Commission – pressed for the expulsion of the Cuntrera brothers, because of the indictments in Italy and the US As Gessen has noted: "The government pretended they did not commit crimes in Venezuela. The only thing they did was sit behind a phone, giving instructions for their drug deals and channelling their payments. But phoning is not a crime." (68) They did launder money in Venezuela however. "My predecessor, Carlos Tablante, calculated in 1984 that their hotels generated more profits than the amount of rooms could justify. Every room had to be rented every seven minutes to make that kind of money." Money laundering was not a crime in Venezuela at the time.
In September 1992 the Cuntrera's were expelled. "A failed coup d'état shocked the country and there was widespread unrest. The government was anxious to show firmness in matters of security," says Gessen. In a surprise action the brothers were apprehended, held incommunicado and were almost secretly smuggled out of the country, as if it concerned one of their own drug transports. It was imperative they could not contact people on the outside who could have used their political connections to stop the expulsion.
Responsible for the operation was the chief of the Organized Crime Division of the Polícia Tecnica Judicial (PTJ), Guillermo Jiménez. It was his finest hour, but a few months later he was forced in early retirement. Now he spends his time at a private office downtown Caracas. "We searched their houses and offices. We managed to seize lots of documents, that is what made the operation successful," says Jiménez. (69) These documents included details of off-shore companies on Aruba, commercial transactions with companies based in Russia, Nigeria and Senegal, bank drafts and deposits. According to Jiménez, the documents offered considerable scope for continued investigation. "On Aruba for instance. But that didn't happen ... They have problems over there. Their intelligence service is penetrated by political groups and the Cuntrera's have some first-rate relations on the island."
One of the Venezuelan banks the clan worked with, the Banco de la Construcción, has an off-shore subsidiary on Aruba: the Intercon Financial Bank, through which a lot of money was channelled.
A Smugglers' Paradise
The Intercon Financial Bank on Aruba is represented by the law-firm Croes & Wever. One of the partners is former Minister of Justice Hendrik Croes. The firm's trust-company Arulex was implicated in setting up the bank. "Yes, we are involved with that bank," says Croes. "We still handle all their legal affairs, but we don't know anything of their financial accounts." (70)
Hendrik Croes – a brother of the island's legendary leader, the late Betico Croes who guided Aruba to its semi-independent status in the Dutch realm – is one of the leading political figures on the island. He led several election campaigns for the MEP, now in the opposition. The Croes Family has been accused of ties with Cuntrera-Caruana. The Sicilian mafiosi payed for a trip of another brother, Rudy Croes (who succeeded Hendrik as Minister of Justice in a previous MEP government) as party secretary to a meeting of the Socialist International in Turkey. This has not been denied.
Paolo Cuntrera visited the island regularly despite his expulsion in 1988. The government opposed his legal actions for re-admittance. But Hendrik Croes has to admit the procedures were not stainless. A blundering government lawyer, an official who signed a residence permit 'by mistake', meant that de facto Paolo Cuntrera was able to circulate freely on the island.
According to Canadian police reports, in 1978, Pasquale Cuntrera owned the Holiday Inn Casino – although the registers indicated otherwise. "At the start of 1980s the Cuntrera's were often at the Holiday Inn casino," says a croupier. "In 1989 they were there again, although they were ostensibly thrown of the island."
DEA agent David Lorino, the case-officer in Operation Wiseguy, claims that "when the Cuntrera's moved to Venezuela they carried some 15 to 30 million dollars with them, which were invested in hotels in Caracas, but also on Curacao and Aruba." 71 The DEA had used the Miami-based Italian-born Venezuelan business man Raffaele Bellizzi to contact Pasquale Cuntrera. Before 1983 Bellizzi owned a shipping-company, but that year it went bankrupt because of the debt-crises in Venezuela. "He told us that his ships transported narcotics and money from Caracas to Aruba and Europe," says Lorino. As mentioned before Canadian investigations show that the clan used Aruba as a trampoline for cocaine to North America. (72)
According to Lorino, "the names Cuntrera and Caruana were well known on the island." Now nobody on Aruba wants to know that these gentle and well mannered Sicilians ever existed. "Oh, but a lot of people knew them then," says Bianca de Mey, who set up the company Investeringen Tweehonderd en Tien, which was the holding for a nightclub and pizzeria for the Cuntreras. The company now has nothing to do with them any more, she adds.
The Cuntrera's must have felt at home on Aruba. The island has been a smugglers' paradise, since colonial times, when it was used to evade the Spanish trade monopoly. Whatever disagreements Arubans may have – and they have a lot – this is something they readily admit. Even Prime Minister Eman acknowledges "it is an island of smugglers ... For years Aruba was the most important coffee exporter, while there is no coffee-plant to be found on the island." Aruba is also the biggest exporter of Philip Morris cigarettes and every imaginable kind of whisky. On Aruba it is all imported and exported according to the rules. What they do at the other side on the South American mainland is not the problem of the islanders. Legal trade or contraband, the difference is thin. "A lot of families became very rich with this trade," says Eman. "This went on for decades and it is an, eh... accepted fact."
Cigarettes, liquor, perfume, refrigerators and other electrical appliances, everything is brought to the Colombian and Venezuelan northern shores, only a few hours away by ship. The contraband sometimes includes guns, although this is something very few will admit. "One day a refrigerator fell when we were loading. The guns tumbled on the pier," a former longshoreman remembers. "Every family who is rich now, was in contraband." All commerce is in cash. Special 'runners' receive the cash in Colombia and bring the money to Aruba. "Once, a 'runner' of one family was robbed by another family. They only took the payment for a shipment of cigarettes; he could keep the rest. That means: do not mess with my business," the longshoreman explains.
Most of the merchandise went to Maicao, a semi-legal staple-town in Colombia at the border with Venezuela on the La Guajira peninsula. Its national representative is senator Samuel Santander Lopesierra Gutierrez, better known as the Marlboro Man. Like his father before him, Santa the Marlboro Man made his fortune smuggling cigarettes and liquor. (73) Maicao is moving exclusively on the rhythm of contraband. But is not only receiving goods, it also exports the local branded products such as coffee and other Colombian specialities. La Guajira was the place of the bonanza marimbero – the marijuana boom – in the 1970s when the US discovered the pleasure of Santa Marta Gold. Cocaine replaced marijuana when the Colombian government under US pressure sprayed the fields with pesticides – and the US market began to produce its own home grown grass. The Colombian and Venezuelan contrabandistas used the tested contacts with its Aruban business relations. The island is like a Western enclave in Latin-America. Its excellent banking facilities, and Free Trade Zone provide an easy access to the European and American market and financial institutions.
"Aruban traders built an extensive infrastructure in the Caribbean," one of their former employees explains – a network of warehouses, shipping-company's, bank-accounts on Aruba, in the Panamanian freezone Colón, in Miami. "In 1983 the bolivar – the Venezuelan currency – collapsed on account of the debt-crisis, and the bills could not be payed to the Arubans any more." Then it really started. The smuggling economy needed re-structuring. The whole infrastructure was turned around: now it was used for cocaine trafficking and money laundering.
The US Attorneys Office in Miami gathered an insight in this pattern when, in December 1993, it indicted – among others – Aruban business-men Randy Habibe and Jossy Arends in its case against the La Costa Cartel. This 'enterprise' is accused to have smuggled some 80 tons of cocaine and 250,000 pounds of marijuana to the United States, and laundering some 800 million US dollars from 1980 onwards. (74)
The Arubans managed the logistics. They brought in the precursor chemicals necessary for the production of cocaine out the coca leaves; they bought the planes and ships to transport the merchandise; and last but not least, they laundered the proceeds through the accounts of their import-export firms in the Aruban Free Zone, skimming a percentage for their services.
Habibe is not the only one. The 1994 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report stated that "other Aruban families with connections to banks in Venezuela and to cocaine cartels in Colombia are strongly suspected of involvement in drug trafficking and money laundering."
Aruban Connections
Five members of the Aruban Mansur Family, viz. Mr. Elias F. Mansur, Mrs. Damia M. de Cuba-Mansur, Mr. Luis E. Mansur, Mr. Miguel J. Mansur and Mrs. Sarah E. Arends-Mansur, have raised objections against general references in the following chapter to the Mansurs or the Mansur family. In their opinion these references may be understood as including them and thereby implicating them in alleged wrongdoing they have never committed.The author is of the opinion that such references to a large family will not be misunderstood as including each and every member of the family. However, in case this opinion should prove incorrect, the author points out that he regrets such misunderstanding and that he did not intend said references to implicate all members of the family.
The Cuntrera-Caruana clan had links with another Aruban bank: the Interbank. The bank granted a credit to the Cuntrera company "Investeringen Tweehonderd en Tien" for 1.8 million Aruban guilders (approximately one million dollars). Why the Cuntreras who own several investment companies in Venezuela needed the loan is unknown.
One could speculate, however, this was a 'loan-back' operation to launder money. An amount of money is deposited cash at a bank and the bank lends the money back: now there is a clean and legitimate source of earnings. But there is no proof, no one ever looked really into the relations of the bank with the Sicilian mafiosi. The letter of credit was issued before the mafia connections of the clan became officially known on the island. This did not stop the bank from keeping the Cuntreras as clients. During Operation Wiseguy the undercover DEA agents were asked to wire money for a shipment of hashish on the account of Alfonso Cuntrera at the Interbank.
The Interbank is owned by the Mansur Family. If anybody owns 60 per cent of the island, it is this powerful family. The Mansurs made their fortune as cigarette manufacturers and in the import-export business. With a licence of Philip Morris, they are the major suppliers of Marlboros in the Caribbean basin. The Mansurs sponsor the best baseball team – Aruba's national sport – the Marlboro Red Tigers as well as the AVP party of Prime Minister Henny Eman. They own the biggest hotel and time-sharing complex, La Cabana, with its inevitable casino. And they have a couple of import-export businesses in the Free Trade Zone.
Jossy Mansur is the owner and chief editor of the biggest newspaper on the island, "Diario". "When I read an article in Diario, I know what will be the next action of the government,"says Hendrik Croes, adding that the Mansurs create a climate of fear and intimidation on Aruba. Their newspapers force others off the market. Furthermore, "their annual income is bigger than the yearly budget of the government. And you may guess how they make that kind of money”."Jossy Mansur is not impressed claiming that accusing people of drug trafficking and money laundering "has become a political tool to discredit them”." (75) Jossy Mansur acts as the family's mouthpiece, Ruben and the elder Alex are the patriarchs, and Elias 'Don' Mansur is the family's whizz-kid. Elias graduated at Notre Dame University, and was Minister of Economic Affairs in Eman's first cabinet. As representative for the Free Trade Zone entrepreneurs in a mixed Dutch-Aruban commission he has to recommend measures to tighten regulations in the FTZ to prevent money laundering and contraband, together with Dutch government officials. (76)
More and more the name Mansur turns up in money laundering cases. Alex and Eric Mansur were indicted in Puerto Rico in August 1994. (77) President Clinton specifically mentioned the Mansur's when he put Aruba on the list of Major Illicit Drug-transit Countries in December 1996. Although no member of the family was actually indicted in the La Costa case, the name Mansur is frequently is found in the files which were seized at Habibe's home on Aruba.
In Venezuela the Mansurs are implicated in money laundering with Santa Lopesierra, the Marlboro Man. Every month Santa 're-invests' 20 million dollar "with the help of a well-known entrepreneur called Mansur”." (78) Lopesierra is accused to have financed his election with the proceeds of drug trafficking and a car-theft ring. He is also reputed to be the man behind the Puerto Rico indictment. The activities of Mansur and Lopesierra, however, go well beyond this. They are accused of illegally funding the presidential campaign of Colombian president Ernesto Samper in 1994. Not only did Samper allegedly receive 6 million dollars from the Cali Cartel – an accusation he vehemently denies and ascribes to political machinations – it is said he also pocketed US$ 500,000 in cash offered by "a group from Philip Morris and Interbank”." (79)
The 'Philip Morris people' are Alex and Eric Mansur and a member of the Lopesierra Family (Santa Lopesierra belongs to the Samper faction in the Liberal Party). Samper tried to ease out of meeting the group, the story goes. He suggested that one of his campaign officials should pick up the cash and bring them to the office later for coffee. "No one gives that kind of money just for coffee. That's worth at least a breakfast," the campaign official replied.
The Mansur Family seems to have all the right connections in its corner of the Caribbean. Some Mansur's still have Venezuelan nationality, and they have interests in Maracaibo and Caracas, as well as in Punto Fijo and Coro, where the originally Lebanese Mansur Family had settled before moving to Aruba. Punto Fijo is situated on the Paraguaná peninsula in the North at the Golfo de Venezuela, which separates it from La Guajira. A ferry connects Punto Fijo to Aruba. Some 20 years ago, in 1974, a few Sicilians set up a fishing company in Punto Fijo called "Mediterranea Pesca". Among the shareholders: Leonardo and Giuseppe Caruana and Giuseppe Cuffaro. The company owned a sea-going vessel and Italian police suspected that "in view of the background of the owners it is probably a cover for drug trafficking”." (80)
Maybe the Mansurs and the Cuntrera-Caruana clan first met each other in this remote part of the world. Nobody knows. (81) But they certainly have met on Aruba, according to several insiders and law enforcement officers. Venezuelan police-officer Guillermo Jiménez states: "I know they are connected. I have sent files about bank transactions between the Mansur's and the Cuntrera's to Aruba. But documents about the Mansur's are kept secret over there." DEA-officer David Lorino is equally convinced and has connected the Cuntreras with Ruben Mansur. In his judgement, "Ruben Mansur is a major-league dope-peddler”." The DEA has the toll-records of the Cuntrera phones in Caracas. "They phoned Mansur's trading company and his place. They certainly talked to each other." What they said, Lorino doesn't know, since it is not permitted to tap phones in Venezuela.
The Fly-wheel of the Drug Trade
The Cuntrera-Caruana clan has had some serious set-backs with the arrest and conviction of some of their most prominent bosses in 1996. Does this mean the clan is out of business? Prosecutor Natoli is under no illusions that the conviction of the Cuntrera brothers will mean the end of the clan's criminal activities and contends that the brothers are able to continue to organize drug transports from jail. Cuntrera and Caruana are not the kind of traffickers who smuggle the merchandise themselves, he explains. "They give the orders, they pull the strings."The highest levels of the drug trade use steady channels: solid systems of transport and tested money-laundering routes, Natoli adds. Several leading members of the clan – such as the Cuntrera sons, all called Giuseppe – remain outside prison and dozens of lower ranking foot-soldiers are still available. (82)
Natoli's fear that the clan continues to play a major role in the drug trade even though the principal leaders are in prison, proved to be correct. During the trial in Palermo, one of the defendants, the fugitive Alfonso Caruana, turned out to be the central organizer of a network that smuggled eleven metric tons of cocaine to Italy from 1991-94. The ring was dismantled in March 1995 in Northern Italy.
Caruana brought together the cocaine producers of the Colombian Cartels with the Italian distributors, six 'ndrangheta families the Calabrian variant of the Mafia. Once again the Cuntrera-Caruana family was "the fly-wheel of the drug trade and the indispensable link between suppliers and distributors." (83)
The investigation – code-named "Operazione Cartagine" – started when the police seized 5497 kilo's of cocaine (a European record) in March 1994 in Turin. The operation "neutralized the most important supply-line of narcotics to Europe," investigators claimed (or hoped). A year later the Turin Prosecutors Office presented the indictment. (84)
The Palermo Tribunal, reviewing earlier drug connections of the clan, was impressed. The sentence concluded that the network was "a further indication of the high criminal capability"of Caruana who had" "escaped every judicial initiative during the last decades and succeeded in reaching the top of the international drug trade, adjusting his criminal contacts and showing such skill that he is to be considered as one of the most important exponents in this sector." (85)
The 52-year old Alfonso Caruana is the living example of the international ramifications, elusiveness and continuity of the family's activities. Although a fugitive, he remains one of the top level Family bosses. The fact he is married to Giuseppina Caruana, the daughter of Family patriarch Giuseppe Caruana (brother of Alfonso's father Carmelo Caruana) the eldest of the foregoing generation, is an indication to be taken seriously in the archaic conventions which rule the internal dynamics of the clan. (86)
In 1968 he arrived in Canada with 100 dollar in his pocket pretending to be an electrician. Ten years later he was stopped at the international airport of Zürich in Switzerland with 600,000 dollar in a suitcase. He was released after paying a fee. At the beginning of the 1980s Alfonso established himself near Lugano in a luxurious villa, supervising the laundering of dollar-deposits at Canadian banks channelled through Swiss accounts. Two years later he moved to the stockbrokers belt near London. From his £450,000 mansion, driving around in his BMW 732i or Mercedes 500 SEL, he supervised a heroin pipeline from Thailand, through England, to Canada. He went to Thailand to set up the route. When the pipeline was dismantled in England, he managed to escape arrest, moving to a Montreal suburb where he opened a pizzeria. Alfonso prepared the pizzas while his wife tended the pay-desk.
At the time Alfonso Caruana was already high on the most-wanted list because, according a high-placed Italian police official, "he was the one who knew most about Mafia finances." (87) When the Canadian tax-man moved in (alerted by the police who were unable to indict him) he left for Caracas, ignoring the 827,962 Canadian dollars the tax collector had seized. Law enforcement lost his traces. He is still at large, despite his conviction to 20 years' imprisonment by the Palermo Court.
Although he is subject to an international arrest warrant, Italian police in 1996 did not have his snap-shot and did not know if he was still alive. According to some he is moving around in Venezuela or Colombia; according to others he is in Aruba or Curacao. Possibly he is in Brazil, recently rediscovered as a Mafia hide-out by law enforcement agencies. His father-in-law (and uncle) Giuseppe owns several appartments in Rio de Janeiro and São Paolo, and the multi-ton cocaine transports to Italy left from Brazilian docks. Or is it Cuba? Canadian police reports that elements of Vito Rizzuto's Montreal offshoot of the Cuntrera-Caruana Mafia clan are active in procuring assets in Havana. (88)
In fact, some phoning around established tha Caruana lives in Woodbridge (Ontario) with his nephew Giuseppe Cuntrera, washing and moving cars at a second-hand car-dealer earning 500 Canadian dollars a week. At least that was what he declared in Court in February 1997 when Revenue Canada challenged Caruana's bankruptcy. The Canadian taxman wanted 28,5 milion Canadian dollars in unpaid taxes, interest and fines when Caruana was declared bankrupt in March 1995. At the time he returned 250 dollars in income.
The arrears of taxes was the result of the RCMP's investigation into the money laundering activities of Alfonso Caruana after the 1985 heroin seizure. The RCMP had detected 21,6 million moved through Caruana's bank account in 1981, and taxed Caruana accordingly. Revenue Canada couldn't prove Caruana possessed more than he pretended. The Court sentenced Caruana to pay 90.000 dollar in the next three years to buy off the bankruptcy. (89)
Diversity and elusiveness
"I wish this was true," Alfonso Caruana answered when the judge showed him a article claiming the Cuntrera-Caruana clan possessed 60 per cent of Aruba. Most observers agree the clan never owned that much of the island. Certainly, the records of the Chamber of Commerce fail to confirm such an allegation. On the other hand company-ownership or real estate property could well be hidden through the construction of Aruban off-shore limited liability companies offering strong secrecy provisions. With a chain of such companies on different Caribbean islands, it is almost impossible to track anything. In the Caribbean, the most insignificant island-states tend to compete with each other, offering the most unwarranted, unverifiable legal constructions of companies, trusts and off-shore banking regulations.
Aruba's Attorney General at the time, the Dutchman Jan Zwinkels, expressed his surprise over the allegations about the the Mafia's influence on the island. "It is all very vague. My impression is that people repeat the same unfounded story over and over again. I never spoke to a Italian judge. There never has been request for mutual legal assistance." (90) In contrast, the Italians say that when they arrested the Cuntreras in 1992 they had enough evidence to convict them. "We had indications that they were interested in investments on Aruba. Other countries should take over here, we have informed them,"says Italian police-investigator Pansa. That did not happen.
Most likely the "Corriere della Sera" took a short turn when it alleged the clan had taken over the island. The only 'clan' capable to own a considerable part of Aruba is the Mansur Family. Most observers do agree on that supposition. Nothing moves on Aruba without the consent of the Mansur's: "If you want to do business on the island, you have to deal with them."Probably the Cuntrera-Caruana clan took advantage of the vast opportunities which Aruba had to offer, linked themselves with local entrepreneurs who were in the same kind of business, and left when they became too exposed. But they certainly did not leave at the first setback, when their activities were disclosed in "Business Week" in 1988.
Paolo Cuntrera fought the Court decision to refuse his re-admittance on the island for nearly two years. That seems to indicate that there were considerable interests at stake or that he had enough faith in the political power of persuasion of his partners. When the three Cuntrera brothers were arrested in 1992, however, it all seemed to have come to an abrupt end.
After all, Aruba is not the clan's main focus. It was nice as long as it lasted. Maybe there still are interests through front-store companies or personal and business ties. But there are other places with the same opportunities – the Venezuelan Isla Margarita for instance, a freeport with a booming tourist-industry and a score of illegal casino's. Cuntrera-Caruana relative Salvatore Vella has been living there for years.
Diversity and elusiveness seems to be the clan's trade-mark. Thirty years at the center of the transnational drug trade have given the members the prestige and entrepreneurial expertise to link with any other network in the business. Their case tickles the imagination to the point of mythology. (91)
The Cuntrera-Caruana clan is a curious mix of Sicilian old fashioned patriarchal clannishness (which protects them from infiltration) and modern global enterprise in illegal commodities. They are very skillful in forging the right transnational alliances and has triple-jumped easely enough through fragmented international law enforcement cooperation. At the same time, no national law enforcement structure has been able to disrupt their operations. Indeed, the history of the Cuntrera-Caruana clan provides a compelling case for international investigative coordination. In this connection, the Italian police can now procure a photo of Alfonso Caruana at a Canadian news agency that was taken during his Court appearance in February 1997.
"This article could not have been written without the financial support of the Fonds Bijzondere Journalistieke Projecten in Amsterdam."
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References
(1) I interviewed Mr Nicolaas in June 1995. The quote comes from: Elly Wempe, 'Drugs tweede economische pijler van Aruba', "De Volkskrant", 24 October 1989.(2) I interviewed Prime Minister Henny Eman in June 1995.(3) "International Narcotics Control Strategy Report 1996", March 1997.(4) Reinoud Roscam Abbing, 'Verstuivende kartels', "Elsevier", 9 March 1996.(5) Tom-Jan Meeus, 'Democratie Aruba verkeert in gevaar', "NRC Handelsblad", 11 March 1997.(6) Letter from the President to the chairmen and ranking members of the House Committees on Appropriations and International Relations and the Senate Committee on Appropriations and Foreign Relations, 2 December 1996.(7) M. Antonietta Calabrò, 'Nei Caraibi il primo Stato comprato dai boss di Cosa Nostra', "Corriere della Sera", 4 March 1993. See also: Claire Sterling, "'Thieves World, The Threat of the New Global Network of Organized Crime'", New York: Simon & Schuster 1994, p.21; and Jeffrey Robinson, "'The Laundrymen, Inside the World's Third Largest Business'", Simon & Schuster: London 1995, p.108.(8) 'Criminelen risico voor vrij Aruba', "Het Parool" (Amsterdam), 2 March 1993.(9) 'The Sicilian Mafia: Still Going Strong', "Business Week", 18 April 1988, p.16.(10) The documentation about the licence, internal correspondance of officials and records from of the Chamber of Commerce were given to me by the people who distributed it anonymously.(11) "Rapporto investigativo Project Pilgrim", 18 May 1988, p.33. Nicolucci was sentenced to 14 years for drug trafficking in 1985.(12) Giuseppe D'Avanzo, 'I Rothschild della Mafia', "La Repubblica", 17\18 December 1989, p.17.(13) Sentenza contro Caruana Pasquale e Cuffaro Giuseppe, nr 656\91, Palermo 31 May 1991, pp.98-99.(14) For Aruba as a money laundering centre, see: Tom Blickman, 'Cosa Nostra ai Caraibi. Aruba-Torino: La famiglia è ancora viva', "Narcomafie" (Turin), April 1996; and Danny Illegems & Raf Sauviller, "Bloedsporen. Een reis naar de mafia", Atlas: Amsterdam/Antwerpen 1995, p.243 a.f.(15) Attilio Bolzoni, 'Sul loro narco-impero non tramontava il sole', "La Repubblica", 13/14 September 1992, p.4.(16) Motion of the Staten van Aruba, 14 October 1992.(17) 'Beke vs Croes. Como dokter no por nenga paciente, abogado si por nenga cliente', "Bon Dia Aruba", 16 December 1992. See also the TV news item on Tg1 (Rai Uno) of Bruno Mobrisci, 'La mafia nei Caraibi', 12 March 1993.(18) I interviewed Pubblico Ministero Gioacchino Natoli in May 1996.(19) Sentenza contro Beddia Lucio+12, nr 48/96, Palermo, 18 January 1996.(20) Beddia+12, pp.111-112.(21) Interview with Alessandro Pansa, September 1993.(22) 'Mafia: presi fratelli Cuntrera', "ANSA", 12 September 1992.(23) Pasquale Cuntrera and Leonardo Caruana were indicted for a double murder, the theft of four cows and arson by the Giudice Istruttore of Trapani in August 1952, both were acquitted in December 1953 'per non aver commesso il fatto' not having committed the fact an almost ritual verdict where Mafia crimes were concerned in the 1950's and 60's. See: Report of the Questura di Agrigento, 19 October 1966 to impose an 'soggiorno obbligato' to Pasquale Cuntrera and the verdict of the Tribunale di Agrigento, 11 November 1966; and Report of the Questura di Agrigento on Leonardo Caruana, 6 June 1978.For information about the clan in Siculiana and their first criminal activities, see also: "Rapporto giudiziario di denuncia a carico di Bono Giuseppe +159", Rome 7 February 1983, pp.254-258.The Cuntrera's and Caruana's were "campieri" (armed guards) of the local baron Agnello, who owned nearly all of the village and its surroundings.(24) According to DEA supervisor Tom Raffanello. See: Richard Cole, 'DEA Says Its Probe Helped Land Mafia Heroin Family in Jail', "Associated Press", 19 September 1992.DEA intelligence analyst Tony Attanasio is also quoted in the article: 'They are the premier Mafia family, Pasquale Cuntrera is one of the top six in the mafia.' He may even sit on the Mafia's twelve-member Commission, according to investigators, says the article. Italian investigators are more cautious. When I asked them, no one dared to speculate about their exact position in Cosa Nostra. They emphasize the transnational aspect of the clan. When I talked to Mr Attanasio in July 1996 he said Pasquale Cuntrera ranked top three qua experience and prestige. He also stressed the real importance of the clan was its international dimension.The exact 'ranking' of Pasquale Cuntrera is not that important. Judge Natoli stressed that the management of the clan at the top is consensual rather than authoritarian. This 'Board of Directors' rules strictly top-down. This article is not ment to discuss whether the Mafia is a strict hierarchical pyramidical structure – where 'rankings' do matter – or a losely connected federation of independent families, cemented together through a common mentality – to mention the two extremes – but the case of Cuntrera-Caruana shows that they manage to operate quite independently. The question is whether they can be considered to be representative for the functioning of Mafia families in Cosa Nostra.(25) Gentile, an old-time Mustache Pete, had been helpful to rising Mafia youngsters like Luciano who took over in the 1930's. He travelled the country as a troubleshooter and negotiator and became part of the New York Mafia Family led by Vincent Mangano and Joe Biondo, which later became known as the Gambino Family. See voor Nicola Gentile's life story: Nick Gentile, "Vito di capomafia", Editori Riuniti: Rome 1963; and Hank Messick, "Lansky", Robert Hale & Company: London 1973, p.49. According to Messick a resentful Gentile confessed to the FBI. In fact his memoirs were for sale in every bookshop. The confession was shown to Joe Valachi who vouched for its accuracy and said Gentile 'wrote just the way it is'.The memoirs of Gentile were written down by Italian journalist Felice Chilanti. This forgotten book already describes the internal organization of the Mafia, or "l'onorata società" the Honoured Society as Gentile calls it, more than 20 years before Tommaso Buscetta emerged as the first "pentito" who broke with "omertà" and told Cosa Nostra's inside story. Gentile was already more explicit than Buscetta in his first confessions. Gentile undiffidently talked about his links with politicians for whom he acted as a canvasser. (See also: Felice Chilanti, "La mafia su Roma", Milan 1971, p.60) Buscetta only started talking about the links between the Mafia and politics eight years after his first confessions, after Judge Giovanni Falcone was murdered.Gentile's fellow mafiosi didn't apreciate his candor and sentenced him to death, but the clan who had to kill him declined to do so. At the end of his days, Gentile was a pitiful figure who only survived through the pasta which his neighbours gave him. (See: Pino Arlacchi, "Gli uomini del disonore. La mafia siciliana nella vita del grande pentito Antonio Calderone", Mondadori: Milan 1992, p.158)As to his contacts with the American bosses, Gentile claims it was he who educated Biondo as a mafioso in the 1920's (Gentile, p.63). Joe Biondo (aka Joe Banty) was 'sotto-capo' off the Gambino Familie from 1957 until 1970, when Carlo Gambino led the family. (See: John H. Davis, "Mafia Dynasty, The Rise and Fall of the Gambino Crime Family", HarperCollins: New York 1993, p.101.) Mangano and Biondo had Gentile linked up with Charles La Gaipa (aka Big Nose Charley 'because he was sniffin' the stuff he was selling', see: Martin A. Gosch & Richard Hammer, "The last testament of Lucky Luciano", Macmillan: London 1975, p.59.), a long time dope peddler and Gentile's son in law.(26) Gentile, p.172; Chilanti, p.60-62.(27) Gentile and Luciano met New York gangster Joe Biondo in 1949, when the latter stayed in Italy for a few months. Biondo supervised the Gambino Family's heroin traffic. (Davis, p.101.) Luciano claims he introduced Biondo to Egidio Calascibetta of the Italian pharmaceutical company Saci in Milan, who legally produced heroin, but illegally sold it to its Mafia clients. When the scheme became known, the US pressed the Italian government to tighten its regulations. It was estimated that some 800 kilograms of heroin were shipped to the US this way. (Gosch & Hammer, pp.359-361.)In 1958 an undercover agent of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics met Gentile. The police had intercepted a courier with a letter from Gentile to a certain 'cuniglieddu', in which Gentile complained about not receiving his money, which would be handed to him by Nino Gatto. The Narcotics Bureau decided to set up a trap by pretending that Gatto (who Gentile didn't know personally) wanted to meet him. Gentile told the undercover that 'cuniglieddu' was Joe Biondo, and of his friendship with Luciano and relations with drug traffickers. (See: Commissione parlamentare d'inchiesta sul fenomeno della mafia in Sicilia, "Relazione conclusiva", VI Legislatura, Doc. XXIII n.2, Camera dei deputati: Roma 1976, p.345; and Michele Pantaleone, "Mafia e droga", Giulio Einaudi Editore: Torino 1966, pp.74-75.)See for Davì's curriculum vitae: Commissione Antimafia, Relazione Conclusiva, p.333-34. Already in 1950 Pietro Davì (aka Jimmy l'americano) and Gentile were implicated in a shipment of 300 kilograms of cocaine out of Germany. (Commisione Antimafia, Relazione Conclusiva, p.461.)(28) Some of the intertwining networks were identified. The 'Squadra di Salemi' for instance, a network which got its name from the town Salemi in the province Trapani where most of the traffickers came from. Or the Caneba network, named after its principal protagonists: the brothers Ugo and Salvatore Caneba.Information about these networks and Giovanni Mira is in: Comando generale della Guardia di Finanza, "Rapporto relativo agli episodi di contrabbando di tabacchi e di stupefacenti, interessanti direttamente o indirettamente la Sicilia, nel periodo dal 1955 al 1963". (In: Documentazione allegate alla relazione conclusiva della Commissione parlamentare d'inchiesta sul fenomeno della mafia in Sicilia, VIII Legislatura, Doc. XXIII n.1/VIII, Camera dei deputati: Roma 1980); and Nucleo Central Polizia Tributaria della Guardia di Finanza, "Rapporto Penale di Denunzia a carico di Caneba Salvatore ed altri 42", 6 June 1961. (In: Documentazione allegate alla relazione conclusiva della Commissione parlamentare d'inchiesta sul fenomeno della mafia in Sicilia, VIII Legislatura, Doc. XXIII n.1/XV, Camera dei deputati: Roma 1982.)Mira and Caruana were spotted in 1958, their supplier was Antoine Cordoliani. Settimo 'Big Sam' Accardo was the subject of numerous investigations in the US between 1930 and 1956, among others on narcotics charges. He remigrated to Sicily in 1955, jumping a $75.000 bail; in 1960 he was in Toronto. (See: Rapporto Guardia di Finanza, p.220\245; Caneba+42, p.128; Jean-Pierre Charbonneau, "La filière canadienne", Les éditions de l'homme: Montreal\Brussels 1975, p.142.)Accardo was in contact with the Montreal Cotroni Family, under which guise the Cuntrera-Caruana clan worked at the time. Accardo was also linked to yet another Siculiana-born trafficker Giuseppe Indelicato, who was arrested in February 1956 with three pounds of heroin in New York. (See: Bono+159, p.201).The anchovy plot consisted of the smuggling of eight kilo's of heroin a month, according to Interpol. Accardo was the consignee. (See: Rapporto Guardia di Finanza, p.293; Pantaleone, pp.79-80.) See also note 54.(29) Rapporto Pilgrim, p.5.(30) Sentenza contro Caruana Pasquale e Cuffaro Giuseppe, p.115. See also: Orazio Barrese, "Mafia, politica, pentiti. Atti della Commissione Parlementare d'Inchiesta sulla Mafia", Rubbettino Editore: Messina 1993, p.190.(31) "Relazione del 24 maggio 1971 del Dottor Giorgio Staffieri, dirigente la sezione narcotici del comitato provinciale stupefacenti di Roma, su mafia, contrabbando di tabbachi e traffico di stupefacenti nella provincia di Roma". (In: Documentazione allegate, Doc. XXIII n.1/VIII, pp.1007ff)(32) Sentenza contro Beddia+12, p.256.(33) Buscetta claims other people used his name when dealing in heroin as a guarantee that nobody would swindle. See: Pino Arlacchi, "Addio Cosa Nostra. La vita di Tommaso Buscetta", Rizzoli: Milan 1994, pp.22-27; and Tim Shawcross & Martin Young, "Mafia Wars, The Confessions of Tommaso Buscetta", Glasgow: William Collins Sons 1987, pp.109-111.Buscetta tends to give a more favorable impression of himself. Although a veneral disease is not very flattering, the real reason why Buscetta stayed with the Cuntrera's probably was that he had to hide himself for a while. Just before he moved in with the Cuntrera's in December 1969, Buscetta was stopped at the US-Canadian border at Champlain with four false passports and a collection of blue movies. He was travelling on one of the false passports, but managed to escape from the inspection office and slipped back to Canada.At the time control at the border was intensified because of an illegal-alien racket. The papers that were seized from Buscetta revealed an extensive involvement with narcotic traffickers which figured in other investigations. See: Charbonneau, pp.89\331; and Shawcross & Young, pp.89-90.(34) Pino Catania's confession is in Charbonneau, pp.500-506.(35) The network was called the French Connection because at that time the Oscar-winning movie with that title was just released. The movie itself deals with a 44 kilo drugbust in 1962, in the car of French TV-personality Jacques Angelvin.(36) BNDD report 30 October 1970 in: Claire Sterling, "Octopus, How the Long Reach of the Sicilian Mafia Controls the Global Narcotics Trade", New York: Simon & Schuster 1990, p.353 note 4; Bono+159, p.200-205 describing a Narcotics Bureau report of March 1971, which also mentions Pasquale and Paolo Cuntrera; Charbonneau, p.333. Mrs Sterling's book was the first open source to identify the transnational importance of the Cuntrera-Caruana clan in the heroin trade.(37) Shawcross & Young, p.95.(38) Sentenza contro Beddia+12, p.89. The purpose of Buscetta's visit was to re-install the Commissione, the ruling body of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra which had desintegrated after the Ciaculli Massacre. But many observers assumed that a reorganization of the heroin trade was also part of the meeting. Some of the participants escaped arrest when their car was stopped for speeding near Milan. In the car were Buscetta (alias Adalberto Barbieri), Salvatore 'Cicchiteddu' Greco (alias Renato Caruso Martinez), Gaetano Badalamenti, Gerlando Alberti en Giuseppe Calderone.The police waved them on, after paying the fee, not grasping who these people really were. Only later on they discovered that they had missed the opportunity to arrest half of Cosa Nostra's top level. Before and after Buscetta was spotted with other top traffickers in Zürich (Switzerland), a.o. Pietro Davì. See: Commissione Antimafia, Relazione conclusiva, pp.492-493; "Sentenza contro Albanese Giuseppe + 74", nr 1422\74, Palermo 29 July 1974, pp.39ff (In: Documentazione allegato, Doc. XXIII n.1/VIII, pp.1760ff); Sterling (1990), p.112; Shawcross & Young, p.88.(39) See: Sterling (1990), p.247-248; and Ralph Blumenthal, "Last Days of the Sicilians. The FBI assault on the Pizza Connection", Times Books: New York 1988, p.7 and 41-43.(40) See for the application of the concept of 'power' and 'enterprise' syndicate on the Sicilian Mafia: Salvatore Lupo: "Storia della mafia, dalle origini ai giorni nostri", Donzella editore: Rome 1993, pp.193ff. He uses the distinction although he points to their 'reciprocal functionality' to illustrate the internal battles of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, the one in 1963 and the one which started in 1981 and brought Totò Riina and his Corleonesi to power.(41) Cotroni Family-boss Paul Violi was killed in January 1978. Years before, in 1972, Violi already complained about the independant modus operandi of his Sicilian 'underlings', Nick Rizzuto in particular. 'He is going from one side to the other, here and there, and he says nothing to nobody, he is doing business and nobody knows anything,' Violi said about Rizzuto. Violi asked for more 'soldiers' from his Bonanno bosses, clearly preparing for war, and Violi's boss at the time, Vincent Cotroni remarked: 'After all, I am 'capo decina', I have the right to expel him.'This episode is very well documented as the RCMP conducted an investigation into organized crime in Montreal at the time and was able to place a bug in Violi's Reggio Bar, in Saint Leonard in Montreal's Little Italy. See: Commission du police du Quebec, "Enquête sur le crime organisé", Montreal 1976, pp.79-80 and 100-101.Some of the bugged conversations were later used in the Palermo Maxi Trial against the Sicilian Mafia by judge Falcone: it corroborated the evidence of Buscetta on the structure of Cosa Nostra and its relations with their North-American counterparts. In one of the conversations Cuntrera-Caruana Family member Giuseppe Cuffaro is explaining the new set-up of Cosa Nostra in Agrigento.The taped conversations give also insight in the troublesome relations between Violi and his Sicilian 'underlings'. There is a lot of talk about the impediment of Sicilian mafiosi to work on the American continent without permission of the local Mafia Family (i.c. Cotroni). See: Lucio Galluzzo a.o., "Rapporto sulla mafia degli anni '80. Gli atti dell'ufficio istruzione del Tribunale di Palermo", SF Flaccovio editore: Palermo 1986, pp.91-99; and Giuseppe Arnone, "Mafia. Il processo di Agrigento", Edizioni La Zisa: Monreale 1988, pp.50-54.(42) Carmine Galante was an important boss of the Bonanno Family. He masterminded the Family's expansion into Montreal in the 1950's, introducing the Cotroni's into the Bonanno Family. Galante was on of the American bosses who brought in Sicilian mafiosi to do the dirty work in the US for the American families. See: Charbonneau, pp.90-92; Shawcross & Young, pp.74-75; and Sterling (1990), p.246.It has been suggested that the Sicilian 'zips' actually killed Galante on behalf of other American family heads, in particular Gambino boss Paul Castellano and Bonanno boss Phil Rastelli. Galante controlled the 'heroin franchise' and had ambitions to head the New York Mafia Commission. It was in the interest of both the Sicilians who he had solicited himself as the American bosses to get Galante out of the way. See: Shawcross & Young, pp. 268-269; Sterling (1990), pp.246-248; Davis, pp.172-175(43) See: Bono+159, p.72. Cattolica Eraclea lies a dozen miles north of Siculiana. Many affiliated mafiosi of the Cuntrera-Caruana clan were born there: Nick Rizzuto and his son Vito, the Mongiovì's and Gerlando Sciascia. For a while Cattolica Eraclea was also the home town of Nick Gentile (see: Michele Pantaleone, "Mafia e politica", Einaudi editore: Turin 1962, p.214.) One of the Mongiovì's is married with a Gentile. The triangle Siculiana, Cattolica Eraclea and Montallegro is considered one mafia territory (see: Renato Candida, "Questa mafia", Salvatore Sciascia editore: Caltanissetta\Roma 1964 3rd revised edition, p.149; Candida was a major in the Carabinieri.)According to several sources the Cuntrera-Caruana family was most prominent in the area and in the 1970's Leonardo Caruana was 'capo mandamento' for this region, a sort of representative of regional Mafia-families in the overall provincial Commission. Nick Rizzuto seemed to have some problems with this nomination, one can deduce from the Reggio Bar tapes. (See: Arnone, p.52, and Galluzzo, p.92.) The Rizzuto-Manno clan is a Mafia cosca of its own, but seems to be subordinate to the Cuntrera-Caruana. There is some kinship (see Family Tree), and Nick Rizzuto is the godfather of one of Pasquale Cuntrera's daughter.(44) See: André Cédilot & Marcel Laroche, 'Les Siciliens (Rizzuto) contrôlent les Calabrais (Cotroni). Le milieu montréalais suit la tendance mondiale vers l'hégémonie des Siciliens sur les mafias italiennes', "La Presse" (Montreal) 24 April 1993.(45) See: Peter Edwards & Antonio Nicaso, "Deadly Silence, Canadian Mafia Murders", MacMillan Canada: Toronto 1993, p. 162; and Jerry Capeci, 'Why the Mob Loves Canada', "The Financial Post Magazine", February 1992.(46) Bono+159, p.251.(47) According to confidential informants. See: Bono+159, p.220.(48) See a two part story in "The Gazette" of Montreal by William Marsden: 'Mafia hid millions in Montreal banks', 7 April 1988; and 'The Montreal connection: Dog's nose led to a Mafia drug ring', April 8 1988. Marsden quotes an officer of the Italian Criminalpol who said about the Pizza Connection: 'they didn't find the real boss and the real links between the Sicilian and American Mafia'. Cuntrera-Caruana was that link.(49) "Relaciones del Crimen Organizado norteamericano, canadiense e italiano con residentes en Venezuela", February 1983. See also: Sterling (1990), p.136; and Sentenza contro Beddia+12, p.124.(50) Historian Salvatore Lupo suggests that the Greco's, after the internal clash in 1963, maybe thought the Sicilian 'power syndicate' uncontrollable, and probably preferred to put their capacity, relations and money into organizing a 'enterprise syndicate'. Lupo also remarks that this is excactly the time Cuntrera-Caruana moved to Venezuela were 'Cicchiteddu' Greco had established himself after the Ciaculli Massacre. See: Lupo, p.205.(51) Sterling (1990), p.131. Napoli moved to Venezuela to escape the French Connection investigation. He also helped Buscetta to establish himself in New York halfway the 1960's. They were partners in several pizzeria's.(52) Sterling (1990), p.107. This faction is known as the Cherry Hill Gambino's. They were the pivot of Sicilian Mafia operations in the US, according to Sterling. Nearly all exiles who dominated the heroin consortium in the 1970's and 80's were clustered around them.(53) Sterling (1990), p 135.(54) 54. Sterling (1990), p.238-239; and Tripodi's memoirs, Tom Tripodi & Joseph P. DeSario, "Crusade. Undercover Against the Mafia & KGB", Brassey's: McLean (Virginia) 1993. Curiously enough Tripodi was on the same trail 20 years before, when he worked undercover for the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. Disguised as a contract killer, he had to track Settimo Accardo in Toronto, who had jumped bail. Accardo's family in New Jersey was well taken care off, investigations showed: their money arrived through a intricate network of banks in Sicily and Venezuela! Tripodi's operation had to be aborted to protect a far more important investigation. (See: Tripodi, p.50-55).The 'more important investigation' centered on pizzeria owner Benedetto Zizzo, part of the 'Squadra di Salemi' heroin network. Benedetto's brother Salvatore Zizzo, Mafia boss of Salemi, was in contact with Giovanni Mira and Leonardo Caruana. (See: 'Ucciso fuori dal suo regno', "L'Ora" (Palermo), 3 September 1981).With the benefit of hindsight, you can say Tripodi's operation was part of the 'more important investigation'. Or you could say that Tripodi was on and off on the same investigation for more then 20 years. See note 28.(55) Sentenza Beddia+12, p.59-61.(56) 'Scoperti i conti d'oro della mafia-holding', "Il Sole 24 Ore", 16 December 1989; and Rapporto Pilgrim, p.1.(57) Sentenza contro Beddia+12, p.277-293.(58) Sentenza contro Beddia+12, p.145; Rapporto Pilgrim, p.27. Giuseppe Cuffaro is a long time member of the Cuntrera-Caruana clan. His sister Maria was married to Giovanni Caruana. Cuffaro was born in Montallegro, a village a few miles to the west of Siculiana.(59) The 58 kilo seizure and its money trail are reconstructed in Sentenzo Caruana+Cuffaro, and Sentenza Beddia+12, as well as the two part story in "The Gazette" of Montreal by William Marsden.(60) Sentenza Beddia+12, p.249-250.(61) According to a confidential BKA Report. For the operations of the Cuntrera-Caruana clan in Europe, see: Fabrizio Calvi, "L'europe des parrains", Ed. Grasset & Fasquelle: Paris 1993; and Jürgen Roth & Marc Frey, "Die Verbrecher Holding", Piper Verlag: Munich 1992.(62) Interview with Mr Natoli; and Yves Boisvert, 'Blanchissage d'argent: un juge italien enquête sur la filière montréalaise', "La Presse", 6 December 1990.(63) I interviewed Sergeant Marc Bourque in April 1994. See also: Mario Possamai, "Money on the Run", Toronto: Penguin Books 1993, p 88-93.(64) To Leonardo Greco of Bagheria for instance, who ran a heroin-lab in his ironwork factory. The raw morphine paste came from Turkish trafficker Avni Yassar Mussulullu, the heroin was destined for the Catalano-Ganci Pizza Connection.(65) See the investigation of André Cedilot and André Noel: 'Le député de St-Léonard entretient des relations avec un caïd de la mafia', "La Presse" (Montréal) 26 April 1994; and 'Le député de St-Leonard admet avoir commis une 'erreur de jugement', "La Presse", 27 April 1994.(66) Tu Nhanh Ha, 'Keeping books for reputed mob figure was mistake: MP', "The Gazette" (Montréal), 27 April 1994, A3.(67) Interview with John Costanzo, November 1996.(68) I interviewed Mr Gessen in June 1995.(69) Interview with Guillermo Jiménez, June 1995. See also: Rafael Rivero, 'El Waterloo del clan Cuntrera', "Exceso" (Caracas), August 1993, p.51-56.(70) Interview with Hendrik Croes, June 1995. See also: 'AVP bewijst connecties tussen Croes en Cuntrera', "Amigoe" (Curacao), 24 March 1993.(71) Sentenza Beddia+12, p.300.(72) Not only Aruba but the Venezuelan tourist-island Isla Margarita as well. According to a Canadian summary of the Mafia in that country, Alfonso Caruana, Pasquale Cuntrera and Cuntrera-Caruana clan-member Salvatore Vella (his brother Domenico is married to Vincenza Caruana and his sister Francesca with Carmelo Caruana, the father of Alfonso Caruana) met each other at a hotel on the island in August 1987 to set up a cocaine smuggling route from Isla Margarita to Montreal, using the many tourist charters to fly their couriers up an down. The same kind of operation was used on Aruba.(73) See: Ken Dermota, 'Under a waning smugglers moon', "Business Week", 30 September 1991; and 'El hombre Marlboro', "Semana" (Colombia), 22 March 1994.(74) United States of America v. Randolph D. Habibe, for the District of South Florida, Case nr. 93-0572, 6 December 1993; see also: 'Randy Habibe acusá di ta homber grandi di La Costa Cartel di Aruba', "Bon Dia Aruba", 10 December 1993.I interviewed Assistant US Attorney David E. Troyer, who prosecuted the case, in November 1996. The cocaine suppliers were notorious traffickers Pablo Escobar and José Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha of the Medellin Cartel, and the marimbero José Rafael 'El Mono' Abello Silva. Abello practically controlled the Bahamian island Exuma. At a certain moment two to three planes a night each with some 500 kilo's of cocaine passed through Exuma, according to Troyer. See: Tom Blickman, 'Wasserij Aruba', "De Groene Amsterdammer", 22 January 1997.(75) I interviewed Jossy Mansur in June 1995.(76) See: 'Comision pa Zona Liber i Casinonan a keda instalá', "Resumen", 9\16 March 1996.(77) United States of America v. Juan Manuel Jinete Vargas et al., for the District of Puerto Rico, by US Attorney Guillermo Gil, Case nr. 94-230, 10 August 1994.(78) According to a report of the Venezuelan intelligence agency, the DISIP. See: Javier Ignacio Mayorca, 'Santa' Lopesierra encabeza brazo político del Cartel Maicao', "El Nacional" (Caracas), 5 June 1995.(79) Juan O. Tamayo & Gerardo Reyes, 'Intrigue in Colombia: Who has the $500,000?', "The Miami Herald", 21 February 1996.(80) Arnone, p.206.(81) In 1987, 'a confidential informer' told the Venezuelan newspaper El Mundo that the Government should start an investigation into the activities of Mansur in Punto Fijo. They would 'find much interesting affairs'. ('El Gobierno debe abrir un investigacíon sobre actividades de Mansur en Punto Fijo', "El Mundo", 24 December 1987.) Mansur and El Mundo were engaged in a press-war since the Miami correspondent of El Mundo, Antonio Llano Montes, accused Jossy Mansur to head a gang smuggling cigarettes, liquor and televisions to Coro, and was implicated in the murder of Betico Croes, former Prime Minister of Aruba ('Desde Miami', "El Mundo", 10 November 1987.) See also: Brigido Marquino, 'Inunda a Venezuela y el Caribe Contrabando del Magnate Mansur', "El Mundo", 21 December, 1987.(82) Police-officer Jiménez told me there are some 40 members of the clan in Venezuela alone. When the three Cuntrera's were expelled(83) 'Coca, colombiani & 'ndrangheta', "La Repubblica", 23 March 1995. p.21; Gian Carlo Caselli, 'Droga e criminalità organizzata', "Narcomafie", April 1995. Caselli is Attorney General in Mafia capital Palermo. He describes the clan as 'pluricontinental', and underlines that Operazione Cartagine shows the clan still plays a essential rol in the drug trade.According to DEA analyst Attanasio the clan smuggles 70% of the cocaine bound for Europe, he told me in July 1996. The Colombian Cartels have a lot of respect for the Sicilian Mafia, he added. The Cuntrera-Caruana clan worked with the Neapolitan La Torre Camorra clan, Attanasio said. They ran a cocaine supply-line through Scotland. Antonio La Torre runs a restaurant in Aberdeen, but before that he was based in Amsterdam. The Family boss, Augusto La Torre, was arrested in June 1996 at Amsterdams Schiphol Airport. (See also: Tom Behan, "The Camorra", Routledge: London/New York 1996, pp.129-130; Enquête Opsporingsmethoden, Deelonderzoek IV, "Georganiseerde criminaliteit in Nederland: een analyse van de situatie in Amsterdam", Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal 24072 nr 20, Sdu: The Hague 1996, p.81; and Joost de Haas, 'Lid van maffia op Schiphol gearresteerd', "De Telegraaf", 13 June 1996.(84) According to the investigating judge for Operazione Cartagine, who I interviewed in December 1995, the consignee expected to receive 3,500 kilograms. The surplus 2,000 kg's were not accounted for, which could mean this was a stock for either the Colombians or the Cuntrera-Caruana clan. The shipment was from three different Cali Cartel members, judging from the marks on the packages: sterling (£), drachme and scorpion, the last one the mark Henry Loaiza Ceballos 'El Alacrán' the scorpion who gave himself up to the police in June 1995.(85) Sentenza contro Beddia+12, p 252.(86) The present day top level of the clan probably is formed by the 'second generation' of both families. The three sons of Carmelo Caruana: Alfonso Caruana, Pasquale Caruana (who is serving a long jail sentence in Italy), and the eldest brother Gerlando Caruana (who was sentenced to 20 years in 1986 in Canada, as a reult of the 58 kilo shipment, and was released in 1993 due to the parole regulations in Canada).An indication of their prominence over elder generation Caruana's was obtained when conversation between Gerlando and his uncle Giovanni Caruana (a brother of Alfonso's father) was tapped. The elder Giovanni was very respectfull towards his younger nephew Gerlando, a sign of the latters superior position in the clan. (See: Rapporto Pilgrim, p.32) Another indication is that Gerlando also married a daughter of the clans patriarch Giuseppe Caruana, just like is his brother Alfonso.The second generation Cuntrera's is younger than the Caruana brothers (Gerlando, Alfonso and Pasquale were born in 1943, 1946 and 1948). Most prominent are Giuseppe and Alfonso Cuntrera (sons of Pasquale Cuntrera, respectively born in 1956 and 1959); Liborio Cuntrera's son Giuseppe (born in 1960); Paolo Cuntrera's son Giuseppe (born in 1962) and his son-in-law Nino Mongiovì (born in 1957), who is living in Venezuela.Another prominent figure is Salvatore Vella (born in 1942), who's sisters Francesca and Giuseppa respectively married Carmelo Caruana (father of Gerlando, Alfonso and Pasquale Caruana) and Pasquale Cuntrera. The Vella family acts as a kind of 'glue' between the Caruana and Cuntrera families.The Montreal Rizzuto branch is led by Vito Rizzuto (born in 1946), son of the ailing Nick Rizzuto. His brother-in-law Paolo Renda (married with Vito's sister) is the son of Domenica Manno, sister of Antonio Manno, father-in-law of Nick Rizzuto, and the undisputed former 'capo-mafia' of Cattolica Eraclea. Paolo Renda was one of the suspects in the Violi murder, together with Domencio Manno (Antonio Manno's son and brother-in-law of Nick Rizzuto), Agostino Cuntrera and Giovanni Dimora, brother-in-law of Liborio Cuntrera and Agostino Cuntrera.The sons of former 'capo-mandamento' Leonardo Caruana, Gerlando (born in 1951) and Gaspare (born in 1954) are probably less prominent. Their father was the odd one out in the clan, according to Buscetta, challenging his elder brother Giuseppe Caruana and Pasquale Cuntrera. Leonardo is the only one who got killed during the Sicilian Mafia War in 1981, the night of his son Gaspare's marriage. They are the only ones who still live in Siculiana. Family patriarch Giuseppe Caruana has one son left (his eldest Gerlando died in 1953), Pasquale Caruana (born in 1951), a physician living in Brasil. His position is unclear.(87) The Gazette, 7 April 1988. Information about Alfonso Caruana is of several sources and interviews.(88) Tony Attanasio, 'LCN Trying to Return to Cuba With Help of Sicilian Mafia', "Organized Crime Digest", 16 August 1995.(89) André Cédilot, 'Le fisc tente de coincer le mafioso Caruana', "La Presse", 9 January 1997; André Cédilot, 'Le faillite de Caruana contestée en cour', "La Presse", 13 February 1997; André Cédilot, 'Le mafieux Alfonso Caruana se tire d'une faillite de 28,5 millions pour... 90.000$', "La Presse", 28 February 1997.(90) I interviewed Attorney General Jan Zwinkels in June 1995. Although Zwinkels himself is Dutch, he was appointed by the Aruban government. Aruba has its own independent juridical system and apparatus, but often Dutch trained juridical personal head the office of the Public Prosecutor. Zwinkels had to leave office in January 1997 after a two year long battle with the Aruban government about law enforcement on the island. Mr Zwinkels prosecuted a little too diligent some business-men affiliated with Premier Eman's party, among others the Mansur Family.(91) See for instance: Patrick L. Clawson & Rensselaer W. Lee III, "The Andean Cocaine Industry", MacMillan: London 1996, p.74-75. The book shows a diagram of the Cuntrera-Caruana 'business empire'. In fact three fourths of the company's in the diagram are not owned by the clan at all. Most of them did turn up in one case or another while dealing with the clan, but to automatically allot them to the clan's 'empire' is incorrect.

10-10-97
On 10-10-97 the “AP” reported:

Accused Aruban drug smugglers face extradition to U.S.
Two members of a powerful Aruban banking family face extradition to the United States on charges of drug trafficking and money laundering.Extradition is a touchy political issue on this Dutch Caribbean Island. And the case against the Mansur family is believed to have contributed to the collapse of the coalition government last month.Cousins Alex and Erick Mansur were arrested Oct. 3 along with Arubaans David Cybul and Randy Habibe after a judge agreed to hear a U.S. extradition request.The four are charged with numerous counts of drug trafficking and money laundering.All except Habibe - who is elderly, ailing, and in the hospital - were released on bail Wednesday. The Mansurs had to pay $ 1.1 million, Cybul $ 550,000. The U.S. government has 60 days to present its case.In a move to block the extraditions, the Mansur family this week foreclosed on several loans outstanding to Prime Minister Henny Eman. He may be forced into bankruptcy and out of the running in the Dec. 14 general elections.The pressure on Eman is just one sign of the widespread influence of the Mansur family, which is refusing to publish his election advertisements in its newspaper. The Mansurs also own a free zone import-export business, a casino, restaurants and a time-share hotel complex."Anyone who's worked in fighting narcotics in the Caribbean knows of the Mansurs," Special Agent Bill Mitchell of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in Miami said Thursday.U.S. narcotics officials long have alleged that the Mansurs have ties to South American drug lords. Aruba is on the U.S. State Department list of leading money-laundering centers and the island, which lies about 20 miles off the north coast of Venezuela, is a haven for South American drug traffickers, according to the drug-fighting agency.The Mansurs have been wanted in the United States since 1994, U.S. Consul Buddy Williams said from his office on nearby Curacao Island. But up until Oct.1, when a new law took effect, the government prohibited extradition of Aruban nationals.The passage of the bill was eased by a weak and fractured coalition government that collapsed on Sept. 15 during debate on the new penal code.Glenbert Croes, leader of the defecting Aruba Liberal Party, complained later that he did not understand that the code he voted for included the extradition clause. He accused Eman's Aruba People's Party of pandering to the interests of the United States and the Netherlands.The extradition clause, which has become a leading campaign issue, also is controversial because it favors Dutch citizens over Aruban nationals. While Arubaans have recourse only to the local court, Dutch nationals ordered extradited can go to the Dutch appeals court.Aruba split from the Netherlands Antilles in 1986 and obtained full control of its legal affairs and most of its foreign affairs in a step toward independence. But the island has remained part of the kingdom of the Netherlands, which lately has played a bigger role in Aruban affairs, mainly because of the mounting problem of drug trafficking and money laundering.



1998
On November 5, 2005 the “Aruba Getagrip” blog reported, “Many of us are remember still that between the years 1997 and 2000, National Security under the direction of Martin Ras, sent a scream to Holland when he took notice of the corrupt and disastrous issues for Aruba at the highest levels of government. More still when Aruba was put on the list of High Risk Regions by U.S. president Bill Clinton.

Since 1998 Aruba is considered a 'Tier Two' nation by the U.S. State Department in regards to money laundering and illegal drug trafficking, having met the minimum standards for combating money laundering and illegal drugs.
Written about three-quarters down this page.... ....detailing ARUBA entitled… Health Situation Analysis and Trends Summary Country Chapter Summary from Health in the Americas, 1998....within the subject title… "Health Services and Resources Organization of Services for Care of the Population"….is documented….
Municipal Services for Management of Solid Waste, Including Hospital Waste. For disposal of solid waste, there is a 12.5-hectare refuse dump located in Parkietenbos. Different types of waste are taken to this site (refuse from homes, offices, industry, hotels, restaurants and cafes, construction and demolition sites), but no documentation is available regarding the exact amounts. Hospital waste also is transported and disposed of in the municipal dump. Infectious waste is burned in an incinerator, which may pose operation and maintenance problems.


2-6-98
On 2-6-98 an Italian boy, GIANNI FERRARA, was kidnapped in ARUBA then taken off of ARUBA to VENEZUELA without his kidnapping nor his transportation off ARUBA to VENEZUELA ever being detected nor reported by any ARUBAN authorities, immigration, patrols, nor electronic surveillance equipment of the ARUBA skies and surrounding ocean. FERRARA was forcibly freed on 4-22-98, and 38 people were arrested.

3-24-98
On 3-24-98 another AMERICAN, AMY LYNN BRADLEY, vanished from on board the “Royal Caribbean Lines” cruise ship the “Rhapsody of the Seas” enroute to WILLEMSTAD, CURACAO (another DUTCH protectorate island--just like ARUBA) after being docked in ORANJESTAD, ARUBA and AMY was propositioned by some men to go with them to “Carlos “N Charlies.”
If you have any helpful information, please contact:
the Amy Bradley Hot line: (804) 276-8503
the F.B.I.: (804) 777-3363
Amy’s relatives Main Line: (804) 276-2204
Fax: (804) 745-6133
Primary E-mail: Teamamy@hotmail.com
On June 6, 2005 BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA NBC TV channel 13 reported:

Holloway's Isn't Only Missing Woman Case In Aruba
Another family said they know exactly what Natalee Holloway's parents are going through. They've been dealing with the same nightmare for seven years.
The Bradley’s, of Virginia, went on a cruise in 1998 and Aruba was one of the stops. That's where their daughter disappeared.
Iva Bradley said her 23-year-old daughter Amy befriended three men that worked on the cruise ship and they wanted to take her to a bar in Aruba.
"They said they wanted to take her to a bar on Aruba that was called Carlos and Charlie's," said Bradley. "She made a face and said 'I wouldn't get off the ship with any of those guys anyway, that's creepy.'"
Amy Bradley was last seen in her cabin at 5:15 a.m. By 6 a.m., she was nowhere to be found.
"Imagine if you have a child. You brought that child into the world and every waking moment is geared toward your children," said Iva Bradley. "You go on a trip and come home without one of them and you get no help. It's a pretty devastating 24/ 7 situation."
Bradley's case remains open with the FBI. NBC 13 spoke with her case manager in Barbados but there wasn't much she could say. However, she did confirm reports of a sighting by a Naval officer one year after the woman disappeared.
The officer told the F.B.I. he went to a brothel in Curacao on Canal. He said an American girl leaned in and said: "My name is Amy Bradley. I need your help."
Unfortunately he didn't report the sighting for sometime and by then the brothel had burned to the ground. The F.B.I. has released sketches of suspects in her case.
There is a $260,000 reward for information leading to Bradley's whereabouts. Her family continues to hope that someone, somewhere, has information that could finally reunite the missing daughter with her parents.
The hot line phone number for the Amy Bradley case is (804) 276-8503.



6-5-98
(Thank You and Hat Tip to “The Real Aruba Truth blog” for the following 6-5-98 “AP” partial report:

Aruban businessman pleads innocent in laundering
An Aruban businessman accused of reaching the heights of drug-money laundering by cleansing $ 800 million in profits pleaded innocent to charges carrying a possible life prison term.After staying beyond the legal reach of the United States for five years, Randolph Habibe made his first appearance in a U.S. court Thursday thanks to a change in Aruban extradition rules last October.U.S. Magistrate-Judge Linnea Johnson ordered Habibe, 54, to be held without bond for trial, which has not been set. If convicted of the most serious racketeering charge, he could face 10 years to life in prison.Habibe acted as the chief financial officer of La Costa drug cartel based on Colombia's north coast, working as both smuggler and launderer with the Medellin and Cali cartels in the 1980s and early 1990s, U.S. Investigators charge.He is accused of smuggling 170,000 pounds of cocaine and 250,000 pounds of marijuana into the United States.A 1993 indictment charged Habibe laundered money through many of his own businesses, including a car dealership, eight banks and a frozen-food company.Habibe allegedly shipped cash, used drug profits to buy and ship consumer goods to Colombian drug producers and exchanged pesos for dollars at a black-market discount.Aruba, a Dutch island 20 miles off the Venezuelan coast, is on a State Department list of leading money-laundering centers.



12-8-98
On 12-8-98 the “Carlos 'N Charlie's” franchise opened its ARUBA business.

1999
On November 5, 2005 the “Aruba Getagrip” blog reported, “Many of us are remember still that between the years 1997 and 2000, National Security under the direction of Martin Ras, sent a scream to Holland when he took notice of the corrupt and disastrous issues for Aruba at the highest levels of government. More still when Aruba was put on the list of High Risk Regions by U.S. president Bill Clinton.

Money laundering was not made illegal in ARUBA by ARUBAN authorities until 1999.
On February 20, 2006 the “Criminal Justice Policy Foundation” reported:

Money laundering in Netherlands amounts to €18.5 billion annually: Amounts to 5% of Dutch GDP
A study commissioned by the Dutch Finance Ministry estimates the amount of money laundered in the Netherlands at €18.5 billion. €17.7 billion comes from crimes committed abroad, €1.8 billion from domestic crimes. The most important money laundering channels are real estate investments, export under invoicing and import overpricing and money laundering through special purpose entities. The report puts the Netherlands on the 7th position in a world ranking, together with countries such as France and Germany. Money laundering accounts for about 5% of Dutch GDP.
The report says that growth effects from money laundering are in principle positive for the Dutch (see chapter 6). One billion of additional money laundering leads to about 0.1% more growth. As long as the Dutch can profit from being a transit country of criminal activities and criminal financial flows, they will most likely rather profit than suffer from these activities. The same most likely will hold true for employment, especially in the financial services sector.
However, if money laundering attracts more crime, the growth effect will turn negative. If money laundering leads to an increase in one million more crime cases, then growth will fall by about 0.3% points. This brings us to the dangers of money laundering.
Finance Minister Gerrit Zalm has announced that he will investigate whether or not additional measures, on top of supervisory measures already taken, are necessary.
The authors say that their results indicate that there is €8 to €14 billion from crime generated in the Netherlands of which 44% will stay in the Netherlands for laundering. This means that money laundering from crime in the Netherlands amounts to €3.2 to €4.2 billion per year, with the most likely estimate to be €3.8 billion. The remaining Dutch criminal money will be placed somewhere else. In addition, criminal money from abroad will also flow into the Netherlands. There is also an additional €14 to €21 billion that flows into the Netherlands from the top 20 origin countries of generated money for laundering. This means that the amount of money laundering with which the Dutch have to deal accounts for about €18 to €25 billion, hence about 4% of the Dutch money demand, or about 5% of the Dutch GDP.
The Netherlands is a transit country for crime and criminal money
The report says that the Netherlands is a transit country for crime. Dutch expertise in financial logistics and its excellent location make the Netherlands a perfect place to use existing legal nodes and networks for crime. The international position of the Netherlands as a trading nation in legal markets also makes it attractive for international illegal trading, with criminals hiding their gains, goods and services in the overall trading network. Many forms of organized crime have to do with international smuggling activities – drugs, human trafficking, women for prostitution, arms, stolen vehicles, cigarettes – and other transnational illegal activities such as money laundering and fraud.
Family ties are important for international criminal associations. Good Dutch infrastructure combined with effective transnational social links and kinship networks help the Colombian cocaine, Turkish heroin and Moroccan hashish trade and make the Netherlands an important transit country for drugs in Europe. This is in addition to locally produced synthetic drugs that are illegally traded worldwide.
What are the effects of money laundering?
In chapter 4, the authors identify 25 potential effects that money laundering can have. From the literature, we consider the following the most important for the Netherlands:
Losses due to crime related to money laundering. Company losses through crime are about €2 billion per year. The economic, social and political consequences of drugs account for about 0.4% of GDP per year.
Distortion of investment, in particular in the real estate sector. A lot of money laundering seems to finally end by investing large amounts of wealth in real estate. This sector is less transparent than financial markets, legal persons can act instead of physical persons and the value gains are high involving the placement of large volumes of wealth.
Growth effects from money laundering are in principle positive for the Dutch (see chapter 6). One billion of additional money laundering leads to about 0.1% more growth. As long as the Dutch can profit from being a transit country of criminal activities and criminal financial flows, they will most likely rather profit than suffer from these activities. The same most likely will hold true for employment, especially in the financial services sector, the report says.
However, if money laundering attracts more crime, the growth effect will turn negative. If money laundering leads to an increase in one million more crime cases, then growth will fall by about 0.3% points.
The long-term dangers of money laundering
As long as a country takes the benefits from crime, by accepting the money from laundering but keeping the crime abroad, it free rides on crimes committed in other countries. This may not be a particularly moral position, but economically speaking, it carries no disadvantages. However, from different studies, the authors say that criminal money will eventually attract crime. Even if the acceptance, or tacit approval of money laundering seems like a smart short term strategy for rich countries in order to attract additional capital inflows, increased government revenues, a more buoyant business sector, employment and growth, it is a ticking time bomb in the long run.
Criminal money attracts crime. Criminals come to know a country, create networks and eventually also locate their criminal activities there. For the Netherlands, the authors estimated that the money laundering multiplier is 1.1 to 1.2. This means that if one million of additional proceeds from crime will be laundered and partly reinvested into further illegal activities, this will increase laundery related crime by 10 to 20% resulting in €1.1 to €1.2 million of money laundering (see chapter 6).
Furthermore, money laundering always needs some assistance from local third parties such as lawyers, notary publics and corrupt officials – the generous customs officer who discretely overlooks the suitcase full of cash, the friendly bank clerk who is not that diligent with proof of identity documentation or fails to report suspicious transactions. Generally speaking, money laundering always necessitates third party involvement from oversight to outright bribery and corruption. However, the latter end of the spectrum of third party involvement –bribery and corruption – is rare in the Netherlands. Several Police corruption reports demonstrated that there is very little bribery in the Netherlands. Only 25 cases out of 1600 investigated by the Bureaux of Internal Affairs from 1999-2000 showed any sign of corruption. But the authors say that they also know from international studies that one million euro of money laundered needs approximately one additional bank employee to cooperate. Yet, inadvertent or tacit cooperation may eventually lead to corruption. Hence there is a danger that additional crime and corruption may increase if the problem is not regulated. It is important to combat money laundering even if a country has not experienced any negative effects. This remains the most appropriate strategy regardless of any short-term economic benefits that may accrue to a nation by turning a national blind eye.
The Netherlands is a tax haven and this makes it vulnerable to money laundering
International and supranational organizations, such as the OECD and the EU, reproach the Netherlands for being a de facto tax haven for non-residents.
Within Europe the Netherlands is classified together with Luxembourg and Ireland as engaged in harmful tax practices, according to the study. The United States even compares it with Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.
One US commentator has recently shown that the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has classified the Netherlands as one of the largest tax havens in Europe.
He notes that:
‘[the] Internal Revenue Service cannot prevent companies from artificially shifting their profits to tax haven countries like the Netherlands, Ireland, Bermuda and Luxembourg. Subsidiaries in these four countries were assigned 30% of all profits of US corporations’
To be a tax haven for large countries is not a bad idea per se, as long as the international community does not put sanctions on it. However, the danger of being a tax haven, is that it not only attracts legal money, but also opens the door for illegal money. It is in this sensitive issue where the greatest challenge of fighting money laundering lies: to keep the balance between trying to attract as much capital as possible, and having to sift out good money from the bad.
Download report.



The family of GODFRIED “Geoffrey” VAN CROMVOIRT moved from HOLLAND to ARUBA in 1999. Shortly before they departed HOLLAND his father, WILLEM, started his own security company called “Video Camera Beveiligingssystemen” (a.k.a. “VCB“) (in English that means “Video Camera Security Systems”) As of May 30, 2005 when NATALEE vanished, CROMVOIRTS “Video Camera Security Systems” company was responsible for the operation of security and video camera systems at many major hotels in ARUBA, including the systems at the same “Holiday Inn” that NATALEE stayed at.

6-9-99
On June 9, 1999 an AMERICAN, WILLIARD “Bud” LARSON, vanished while vacationing in ARUBA. (Last known location: “Windsurf Village board shop” in ARUBA‘s west beach…. If you have any helpful information with respect to LARSON, please, email his parents at Larsoncrew13@verizon.net

2000
On November 5, 2005 the “Aruba Getagrip” blog reported, “Many of us are remember still that between the years 1997 and 2000, National Security under the direction of Martin Ras, sent a scream to Holland when he took notice of the corrupt and disastrous issues for Aruba at the highest levels of government. More still when Aruba was put on the list of High Risk Regions by U.S. president Bill Clinton.

BETH HOLLOWAY remarries GEORGE “Jug” TWITTY and moves NATALEE and MATT to MOUNTAIN BROOK, ALABAMA.

DAVE and ROBIN HOLLOWAY move to MERIDIAN, MISSISSIPPI.

DEEPAK KALPOE relocated from SURINAME to ARUBA (age 15 or 16)

On May 19, 2005 the ST. JOHN, U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS “St. John Source” reported:

Aruba Outlines Public-Private Police Protectionby Source staffV.I.P.D. crime lab and bomb disposal vans stand ready at ACCP conference.May 19, 2005 – Discussions on day two of the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police focused on the communities' role in the safety and security of visitors. In another part of the hotel complex at the Carambola Beach Resort, vendors displayed state-of-the-art forensic and computer technology designed to take crime fighting to a new level.The small Caribbean island of Aruba, which credits 80 percent of its income to tourism, was facing serious threats to its livelihood. Drug sales on the beaches, problems with illegal vendors and petty theft crimes against tourists all threatened to negatively impact tourism.Marcia Grobman, program coordinator of the Aruba Hospitality and Security Foundation, told how a group of private citizens partnered with the Aruba Police to take back their island from the criminal element. She gave a presentation titled "The Aruba Visibility Team: A Model Visitor, Safety and Security Project."
Aruba's solution to crime was a "visibility team" made of private security guards who receive training from the Police force to augment Police manpower in tourist-populated areas. Grobman credited the concept of the visibility team to Roland Bernadina, Aruba Police commissioner. The program, which began in 2000, allowed an overextended Police force to utilize additional manpower paid by private funding. Grobman said the program saw immediate results. Analysis of statistics showed a decline in crime, decrease in drug sales, favorable comments from tourists and positive dialogue between the private and public sectors.Grobman said the visibility team, who wear white t-shirts and blue caps while on patrol, have earned high praise from tourists who rely on team members for anything from a purse snatching to vendor harassment and recommendations of a good Chinese restaurant. The team does not come without a price, however. Monthly donations from private businesses are funneled through a non-profit foundation to pay for the security personnel and equipment. In 2004, the team had an operating expense of $123,000, which was used to purchase a pickup truck, bicycles, all-terrain vehicles, two-way radio communications, training and to pay for a headquarters and utilities.In 2005, the AH&SF is expanding and increasing awareness of the program. Grobman said that in addition to the visibility that translates to higher visitor perception of security, the Police force has more time to respond to more serious crimes.Another section of the hotel is reserved for vendors of Police products. Michael Clamen, regional director of forensic technology for Integrated Ballistics Identification System, stood by his display area ready to espouse the benefits of his product. The Virgin Islands already has one of these," Clamen said, referring to the $17,000 piece of equipment designed to collect and compare ballistic evidence. "I am here to increase awareness in the Caribbean on how technology can assist in law enforcement." Raymond Reynolds sat in front of a display of firearms produced by SigArms, which provides pistols for some branches of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Four semi-automatic models were on display. For all the Police's wireless solutions, Comtex and Datmax were ready with the latest in computer technology. To combat drunk driving, Intoximeters Inc. showed three types of equipment to test alcohol content on a suspect's breath. The breathalyzers were either hand held, enclosed in an attaché case or a desktop model. Representative Mark Gilmer said the V.I. Office of Highway Safety already has four of the attaché type equipment, priced at $3,700 each, and two desktop models, priced at $5,600 each.Several of the commissioners and delegates traveled with their wives to the conference, which ends May 24. Spousal social activities included shopping in Christiansted and Frederiksted and a day trip to St. Thomas and St. John on Friday.



11-19-00
On 11-19 the BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS “Boston Globe” reported:

Mystery in paradiseBy Mitchell Zuckoff, Globe Staff, 11/19/2000ORANJESTAD, Aruba - The balconies at the Wyndham Aruba hotel are small and private. They have high steel railings that curve inward at the top, for safety.After a day of sun and rum, Renee and Roy Tiano of Framingham went to their room on the hotel's 12th floor.Married for four years, the parents of two small children, Renee and Roy left their bathing suits on the floor near the bathroom. It was a warm March night; a three-quarter moon rose in a clear Caribbean sky. They went naked onto the balcony.Minutes later, without a sound, Renee went over the railing, falling 80 feet to her death on a ballroom roof.A witness called the hotel operator. Ten minutes passed. Then Roy called the hotel operator.Later that night, Roy told Aruban police that Renee had felt ill, so he left the balcony to get her a glass of water. He said he heard a noise, turned around, and she was gone.Aruban police quickly ruled out suicide and declared Renee's death an accident, never revealing the basis for that finding.Eight months later, Renee Kennedy Tiano's family remains tortured by questions, tormented by suspicion.''I've got good reason to believe my brother-in-law's story isn't true,'' said her brother, Michael Kennedy of Hopkinton. ''It's either not true or not complete. I want the truth.''Why, her family wonders, did Roy wait 10 minutes to seek help, and how did he spend that time? Why did police find no fingerprints on the railing? Why did Roy rush to get off the island, leaving Renee's body behind? Why did Roy refuse to allow an autopsy in Massachusetts? Why wouldn't he talk with the FBI? Were Aruban officials more concerned about tourism than justice?In a brief telephone interview, Roy provided no answers. ''What do you mean you want to hear my side?'' he said. ''She fell off the [expletive] balcony. What more is there to it?'' Then he hung up the phone.But there might well be more to it.Unbeknownst to Renee's family, Aruban authorities and FBI agents who came to the island formed a disturbing theory about how she died.It is a theory that does not answer all the questions. But it does challenge Roy's story about getting her a glass of water. Instead, it places him at the railing with Renee when she fell.The theory is based on clues from none other than Renee herself - from her appearance in a hotel security video taken minutes before she fell and from telling marks on her body. It also fits an odd comment Roy made to one of Renee's brothers.And yet, US and Aruban authorities have tried to bury the theory along with Renee. Despite pleas from family members for information, no official of either government has ever told them about their theory. The family first heard it from a Globe reporter.Athlete, bodybuilder
Renee was 32, with a big smile and bright blue eyes. People who loved her say she was happy and outgoing. A family video taken two weeks before she died shows her turning cartwheels in the backyard of her parents' Dedham home.She had asthma but was an athlete nonetheless, running track and starring on Dedham High School's field hockey team. After high school, Renee attended Mitchell Community College in New London, Conn., then Southeastern Massachusetts University.She was working as an office manager at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge when she met Roy.It was 1993, and she was sharing a Waltham apartment with her cousin and best friend, Donna MacInnes. Renee had become a bodybuilder, sculpting her 5-foot-8-inch form at the World Gym in Waltham.Roy, now 40, was a World Gym regular, too. Thickly muscled, 5-feet-9, a Waltham native, he ran his own plastering business.''When they first met he gave her a lot of attention, fed her ego, said all the right things,'' MacInnes recalled. ''He was very affectionate towards her, almost to the point where it was inappropriate. She was embarrassed by him sometimes.''Soon after they met, Roy made plans to open a gym in Florida. They moved to Fort Lauderdale with help from the oldest of Renee's three brothers, Edward Kennedy. He found it odd that their apartment was on an upper floor of a high-rise; Renee was afraid of heights, he said, and during his visit would not go out on the balcony.The gym plan fizzled after several months and they returned to Massachusetts, to live in the basement of Renee's parents' home before buying a ranch-style house in Framingham. In September 1995, Renee's parents threw them a lavish wedding at Lombardo's in Randolph.In February 1998, Renee gave birth to a son, Brandon; their daughter Katrena followed 181/2 months later. ''She was so happy,'' MacInnes said. ''She had her boy and her girl.''Friends and family say the couple had problems typical of young families: financial pressures when Renee became a full-time mother, arguments over Roy's lack of involvement in child care, and Roy's displeasure at the weight Renee gained during pregnancy.Last winter took a toll, though, as the whole family fell ill with pneumonia. By spring, Renee and Roy needed a vacation.`One Happy Island'
In early March, Roy made plans for a three-night trip to Aruba, where 400,000 Americans flock each year for its 80-degree days, turquoise water, and self-proclaimed reputation as ''One Happy Island.'' Renee's parents eagerly agreed to care for the children.They arrived on Thursday, March 23, and went quickly to the business of relaxing, dining, and drinking at the hotel's bars and restaurants. That first night they ran into one of Renee's closest friends, Sandra Parent, who has a time-share apartment on the island.''She was her usual happy self,'' Parent recalled. ''She invited me to come meet her at the pool the next day. I said, `You want to be with your honey, and I don't want to be in the middle of two people kissing.' She blushed like a new bride.''The next day, Roy and Renee had a breakfast buffet, then hit the beach.''After that we visited several hotels,'' Roy said in his statement to police. ''The whole day we drank rum runners,'' a sweet yet potent mix of rum, blackberry brandy, and banana liqueur. In Roy's words, ''We became drunk.''They walked a mile on the white sand of Aruba's Palm Beach, past surf shops and hawkers selling aloe vera. Then they returned to their hotel, stopping at the poolside Tambu Bar.They ordered two rumrunners and four Heineken beers. Roy signed the tab with an illegible scrawl. Below Roy's signature, a waiter wrote in Dutch, ''Drunken man.'' The time stamped on the bill was 7:37 p.m.En route to their room, Renee and Roy went to the hotel's lower lobby. A security video shows them in bathing suits, drinks in hand. Looking tired and spent, Renee sat heavily on a padded bench while waiting for the elevator.When it arrived, Renee pressed the button for the 12th floor and the door closed. She walked to the back corner and slumped to the floor in a sitting position. Her arms rested on her knees and her head drooped, face down, the security video shows.Roy, wearing Speedo-style swim trunks, walked over to Renee and straddled her while she sat. He shook his hips and pressed his crotch against her downturned head. She made no response.The doors opened and Roy walked out, but Renee remained slumped in the corner. When he realized she wasn't with him, he stopped the elevator doors from closing. After 10 seconds or so, she raised her head slightly and held up her right hand. Roy pulled her up and out to the hall. It was the last image of her alive. The video time-stamp reads 7:53 p.m.From 8:08 to 8:18
Roy described Renee's last 15 minutes this way to Aruban police: ''We went to the room. When we arrived there we both got undressed. We went and sat on the balcony. On the balcony we started to caress each other.'' He said they did not have sex. Then, Roy said, Renee felt ill and he went to get her water.They were in Room 1219. Seven floors directly below, in Room 519, was Thomas Dowden of louisiana. He saw Renee plummet. ''I was out on the balcony smoking a cigarette,'' Dowden recalled. ''All of a sudden it sounded like a full piece of luggage landed in front of me. It was like, `whomp!' No scream, no other sound. A whoosh of air.''He looked down to the ballroom roof below his balcony and saw a naked body, face-down and motionless in a puddle of blood. He phoned for help. The hotel's call log shows it was 8:08 p.m.Roy's call was logged at 8:18 p.m. He never mentioned a delay to police: ''I looked over the railing and saw her lying on the roof below. I called the receptionist and informed her.''Roy spent several more minutes in their room, then went to the elevator, security videos show. When the doors opened, he saw people inside and pulled back to wait for an empty one. After several frustrating trips to the wrong floors in search of the ballroom roof, Roy punched the control panel of floor numbers and tore a phone off the wall.Eventually he reached the correct floor. With no doorway to the roof, he threw a cast-iron bench through a window and climbed out. Dowden, watching from above, said Roy seemed deeply upset as he crouched by Renee's body. He cried out: ''What am I going to do?''Left a day early
Summoned by hotel security, two Aruban police detectives secured the scene and, several hours later, took a statement from Roy. At the time, police were unaware of the 10-minute gap. They had not seen the video. They did not interrogate or detain him. He was agitated, so they sent him to Aruba's only hospital for psychiatric observation.Roy returned to the hotel the next morning and called Renee's family and made plans to leave the island. It was a day before his scheduled return, and Renee's body was in the morgue.Through their shock and grief, her brothers begged him to stay with her. He refused, trusting Renee's body to an Aruban mortician, Eugene Maduro, until her brothers could fly down.''While I was in the [hotel] room he was on the phone with someone,'' Maduro said. ''I heard him say, `What am I going to do now with the damn kids?' That stayed with me. And he leaves without her?''With little investigation, police allowed Roy to change flights and leave that day for Boston, effectively closing the case. ''It looked like it was an accident, and we couldn't prove that the other person had something to do with a crime,'' said prosecutor Elivia Lugo.The next day, Renee's brothers Michael and John flew to Aruba to retrieve their sister's body. They began asking questions of hotel officials and authorities; they began to doubt Roy's story and the competence of the Aruban police. They won help from Barbara Stephenson, the US consul general to Aruba. Troubled by what they told her, Stephenson arranged Aruban approval for an FBI evidence team to fly to the island later that week to work with Aruban authorities.FBI officials have refused to comment about what they found. But both US and Aruban officials involved with the case said in interviews that evidence from the joint investigation suggested Roy's story was false.From the outset, it seemed implausible that Renee had simply fallen over a 44-inch-high safety railing whose top bar would have nestled under her rib cage. No one had ever fallen over the railings; the only known balcony death at the Wyndham was a suicide several years ago. A new theory began to form.Protecting the children
The first clues came from the Aruban medical examiner. All of Renee's injuries were consistent with a fall, except two: On her back and behind her right knee were scrapes that contained grit from the hotel's outer wall. The investigators concluded that she fell backward over the railing, from a sitting position, scraping her back and leg on the way down.Then there was the elevator video, which suggested that both Roy and Renee were intoxicated and that Roy was focused on having sex. Those images fit with the waiter's note on their check that Roy was drunk and with witnesses who saw them dancing sensually at the Tambu Bar.In fact, the medical examiner concluded that Renee had had intercourse in the hours before she died, and had a blood alcohol level of .196, more than twice Massachusetts' legal driving limit.The evidence began adding up this way: Renee and Roy were together on the balcony, naked under the moonlight. Renee was seated on the rounded top bar of the railing, facing Roy. Roy held her on the railing as they had sex.Then something awful happened: somehow, Roy lost his grip. Renee fell backward, scraping her legs and back, falling past one balcony then another, plunging past Dowden on the fifth floor, then slamming head-first into the balcony roof.The investigators thought the 10-minute gap could be explained as time Roy needed to react to the shock of his wife's death. The theory also might explain why he was in a hurry to leave the island, why he refused her family's requests for a second autopsy in Massachusetts, and why he refused to speak with the FBI.It might also explain a remark Renee's brother Edward said Roy made two days after she died. After telling Edward his drink-of-water story, Roy suddenly added: ''She had baby oil on.'' ''I said, `What are you talking about?''' Edward recalled. ''He didn't answer. He started telling his story again.''An Aruban government official said authorities refused to disclose their conclusions to the family in part to protect Renee's children.''It's bad enough the kids don't have a mother,'' said Henry Baarh, Aruba's director of foreign affairs. ''But to not have a mother because she was having sex on the balcony with your father and she fell, well, that's another thing entirely.''Renee's family reacted angrily when a Globe reporter told them the investigators' sex-on-the-balcony theory.''How the hell do the FBI and the Aruban authorities get into the business of making up stories for people?'' said her brother Michael. ''What they should say is, `What you told us is not true. Now we have real problems with you as a person who was there at the time of this death. You have anything else to say?'''Was she aware?
Although the investigators' theory fits key pieces of evidence, troubling questions remain.Aruban authorities said they closed the case in part because both were drunk and seemed amorous at the bar, leading them to conclude that both participated in dangerous balcony sex.Authorities from both countries acknowledged, however, that they would have pursued the case if they thought Renee had been unconscious, unwilling, or unable to get onto the railing on her own.However, Roy was never asked those questions in Aruba. And when FBI agents went to his house in Framingham a week later, armed with a list of 52 questions, Roy turned them away. Among their questions, ''What was her state of consciousness? Was she awake?''By refusing to cooperate, Roy also spared himself from being asked about evidence relating to those questions: Renee's drowsy appearance in the video, her fear of heights, and Dowden's recollection of a silent ''piece of luggage'' falling.Mary Ames, a Boston lawyer hired by Renee's brothers, said Aruba's failure to aggressively pursue the case, including the questions of Renee's consciousness, reflects their concern about the country's tourism industry.''The Aruban government is digging in their heels and insisting on the correctness of their position, and the American government seems powerless on their own to go down and conduct their own investigation,'' Ames said.''We're caught in this crazy Catch-22,'' she added, ''without answers to find out what happened to this young mother, daughter, sister who went down for this four-day vacation and never came back.''At the request of Renee's family, Senator John F. Kerry has pressed Aruba to reopen the investigation. In a letter to Aruban diplomats, the Massachusetts Democrat cited unanswered questions that ''intenstified when Mr. Tiano refused to cooperate with any further investigation of his wife's death.''Mrs. Tiano's family is very concerned that troubling details about the case raise serious questions about the possibility of foul play and merit further investigation,'' Kerry's letter said.But Aruban officials remain unmoved. ''We have already closed that case,'' insisted Lugo, the Aruban prosecutor.In response to Kerry's request, Baarh, Aruba's director of foreign affairs, drafted a letter that says a new investigation would require new evidence and a formal request from the US Justice Department. Neither seems forthcoming. The federal prosecutor in Boston handling the case said there are no grounds for the United States to investigate Renee's death further and no way to force Aruba to act. ''I have tried to rack my brain for ways to find jurisdiction, and I can't. We're not punting this without thought,'' he said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.He acknowledged, however, that federal or state authorities could seek fraud charges on US soil if it were shown that Roy made ''material misrepresentations'' to collect life insurance. Lies by a beneficiary about the circumstances of an accidental death could meet that standard, the prosecutor said. But he declined to say whether he would pursue it. On June 29, three months after Renee died, Roy collected $500,000 from her policy with New York Life Insurance Co. A company spokesman declined to comment about what claims Roy made about her death.''Absent any court action or legal authority requiring our involvement, this matter is closed for us,'' the insurance company spokesman said.A headstone and a cross In the eight months since Renee died, Roy has gone on raising their children in their Framingham home. He has traded in the family minivan for a Cadillac Seville.He has never wavered from a line from his police statement: ''I don't know how my wife fell from the balcony.''Renee's family, meanwhile, stews in frustration and pays regular visits to St. Joseph's Cemetery in West Roxbury.Renee's grave has a red eternal light and a pink granite headstone surrounded by flowers. Her family asked Roy to include her maiden name on the stone, but it says only ''Tiano, Renee Charlene, 1967-2000.''But someone has placed a small wooden cross at the base of the headstone, with a laminated photo of Renee and her name in white paint. Only her maiden name.''We're not going to let it go,'' said Renee's brother Edward. ''If we have to go stand in front of travel agents or the Aruban embassy or whatever, we'll do it.''


For the year 2000, ARUBA reported that there were….
15 registered deaths due to “transport injuries”
(according to ARUBAN Police given statistics)6 registered deaths because of “suicide”
(according to the ARUBA Department of Public Health, Epidemiology & Research)0 registered deaths because of “homicide”
(according to the ARUBA Department of Public Health, Epidemiology & Research)


2001
According to his June 10, 2005 statements he gave to his ARUBAN Police Interrogators, Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT admitted that in 2001 (at his then-age of 13 or 14) he first started drinking alcohol.
He also admitted to his ARUBAN Police Interrogators that it takes a crate of beer for him to get “tipsy,” and 20 to 30 glasses of “normal alcoholic beverages” for him to be “drunk.”
After NATALEE vanished, but before Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT was arrested, there were posted publicly and available on the Internet many photos of him drinking and/or sleeping/passed-out, some of which reveal him cradling and hugging a large bottle of alcohol.
Sometime before May 29, 2005 Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT obtained (from who or whom?) an open credit line at ARUBAN casinos and he also obtains an open line of credit at bars for ordering alcohol.
Sometime before May 29, 2005 he also obtains a “V.I.P.” entrance pass to “Carlos 'N Charlie's” (and possibly other establishments and casinos).
In his June 9, 2005 statements that he gave to his ARUBAN Police Interrogators he admitted that, on average, he parties and drinks at “Carlos 'N Charlie's” at least 1 to 3 nights every week.
**NOTE** the legal age in ARUBA to enter a gambling casino is 18
**NOTE** the legal age in ARUBA to consume alcohol is 18

On 4-7 DUTCH news-sourced “BN DeStem” reported, “Joran was already from age 14 having sex with girls.”

3-9-01
On 3-22-1 the “Bulgaria Press” reported:
(Thank You and Hat Tip to “msmarple”)
The dailies publish more details on the murder in Aruba of Poli Pantev, boss of the SIC insurance company. His body will be flown to Sofia on Thursday.Pantev was planning to have plastic surgery and live under an assumed identity on the island, "Troud" says, quoting a source close to the police in Aruba. He tried to con the international cocaine Mafia by stealing 500 kg of the drug and selling it dirt cheap.Once the body is in Sofia, DNA testing will show if it is really Pantev, "Monitor" says. A detective told the daily from Aruba that there are suspects but no one has been arrested.There is only one Bulgarian living on the island, the international relations department said, without naming names.

In a later article was written, “Pantyu Pantev, a Bulgarian who was recently killed in the Aruba island, was a spy and his murder was contracted by his girl friend, "Troud" says. Pantev was shot to death in a local hotel. According to one of the theories, he was killed because he owed money. Two persons have been questioned in the case, "24 Chassa" writes. Both dailies refer to their correspondents sent to Aruba.” “The Bulgarian was shot in an elevator March 9 2001, Sonesta Hotel in "Orangecity" [ORANJESTAD; my insertion] Aruba. Security camera captured the killing; gunman was "Latin American" in his late 20s. Poli Pantev had dual citizenship, Argentinean and Bulgarian.”


12-1-01
On 12-1-01 the “AP” reported:

There has been an increase in crime in Aruba, reports the U.S. State Dept. (Nov. 9, 2001), which notes: "Although strolling downtown or in other tourist areas after dark used to be generally safe, Americans should note that there has been a sharp rise in armed robberies. Newspapers report these incidents as being mostly drug related. There have been incidents of theft from hotel rooms. Petty crime and credit card fraud continues to be a problem."



12-24-01
On June 6, 2005 the BOSTON, MASSACHUSSETTS ABC TV channel 5 “WCVB” reported:

Woman Claims Rape Where Missing Teen Was Last Seen In Aruba
BOSTON -- With its year-round warmth and nearly rain-free climate, Aruba has become a vacation oasis for thousands of Massachusetts’s residents. But in recent days, a dark side has emerged.
NewsCenter 5's Amalia Barreda reported that a local woman said she was raped after leaving the same bar in Aruba where missing Alabama teen Natalee Holloway was last seen.
"Aruba is not as safe as the commercials make it out to be," said Marie, who withheld her last name.
Marie said she made four trips to Aruba with friends and believed the island was safe. That's why she had no qualms about traveling there alone for Christmas 2001. She stayed at the same "Holiday Inn" where Holloway and her high school classmates booked their rooms. On Christmas Eve, Marie said she went to Carlos 'N Charlie's, the same bar where the missing Alabama teen was last seen.
When she left, Marie said a man pulled her into his car, drove away and raped her.
"As I was being pulled into vehicle, screams came out of me that I couldn't imagine ever coming out of me of me and people did nothing," said Marie.
"I have never felt threatened, felt scared. Aruba is home away from home for me and always will be," said Neely Cosentino, an Aruba homeowner.
Cosentino said she and her husband bought a second home in Aruba and spend more than half the year there. She said they made the investment because they believe the island is safe. The government does not tolerant crime because tourism is their top industry.
"Over 500,000 tourists a year visit Aruba, and if it wasn't because of us Americans, Aruba wouldn't be the way it is. So to answer your question, there is zero tolerance for anybody that is threatening or doing any damage to Americans," said Cosentino.
Marie said she managed to get away from her assailant that night. She said she did not report the attack to island Police because she was alone and afraid, but mostly because she would not have been able to identify her attacker.



2001 or 2002
While in ninth grade, NATALEE’s first boyfriend is SEAN McVEA. (McVEA was among the graduates on the 2005 ARUBA trip)

2002
SATISH KALPOE relocates from SURINAME to ARUBA (age 14 or 15)

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On February 4, 2006 “Blogs For Natalee” identity “pdh3” reported:

I have been reading this forum for a long time, trying to decide where to post this sad story I have been holding on to. You might be interested to read this in light of your post about other female tourists and their safety in Aruba.
My neighbor mentioned that she was going to Cancun with a friend for vacation. I asked her if she was boycotting Aruba. She said she had been there, and would never go there again, and had told people for a long time not to go, before Natalee's disappearance. On her visit to Aruba, she and her friend, both in their 30's, were harassed by the locals who felt that these 2 women were just there to get drunk and pick up men, and the guys were angry when rebuffed. She and her friend stayed at the same Holiday Inn as the MB group. She said the HI employees were constantly propositioning them, and trying to get them to go out. On the last night there, her friend was taken against her will to the beach by the lighthouse where so much has been mentioned in connection with Natalee. She was raped by someone she said was a " high ranking person" in Aruba. She was so traumatized, she could not talk about it for a long time. She did tell my neighbor later, but before Natalee. I have met this nice lady, and I know my neighbor very well. They are professional women, with no reason to lie. They both were not surprised by what happened to Natalie. This lady just wanted to get off the island, and back in the USA. I am sure there are many other stories like this.



On November 1, 2006 “Blogs For Natalee” reported about the October 28, 2006 meeting:

Has Natalee ever been out of the US before her trip to Aruba? YES, She traveled to Austria when she was 16, she went with Beth.



On August 23, 2005 the ARUBAAN's news-source, “Diario“ reported:

More Alleged Victims Come Forward against Joran
ORANJESTAD (AAN) — Last night on The O’Reilly Factor of Fox one could hear how the parents of an American girl (today 18 years old) who was a girlfriend of Joran three years ago and this family is convinced that Joran van der Sloot is innocent in the case of the disappearance of Natalee.
It was mentioned that the youngsters met each other at a pool of a hotel where the family would have had a Timeshare, how Joran visited the family in the states and how he had contact with the girl via E-mail until recently.
This is contrary to what also reached the editorial desk, indicating that there is a girl of 17 years old who apparently will press charges against Joran to the authorities for rape. According to this information that reached our editorial desks, apparently there are 3 girls who want to press charges, but that two of them have not yet decided, but that the other does have the intention of pressing charges soon.


On 4-7 DUTCH news-sourced “BN DeStem” reported, “Since he was 15 Joran had here, beside the swimming pool and at a reasonable distance of the parental house, his own bedroom and bathroom.”

January 2002
Future Murder Suspect PAULUS VAN DER SLOOT was the Chairman of the Complaint Commission of the “Horacio Oduber Hospital” in ARUBA from January 2002 to January 2004. In that capacity he made contacts with the highest administrators of the hospital.
**NOTE** the hospital has a medical waste incinerator which could have been utilized to incinerate NATALEE’s body

1-29-02
An AMERICAN, GARY MAKINGS, was last seen in ARUBA on January 29, 2002 He was staying at the “Arubahouse,” and was last seen when he left to go snorkeling. If you have any helpful information, please, contact travismakings@yahoo.com

2003
In NANCY WATSON’s affidavit she made it a point to note that after NATALEE started driving in 2003, NATALEE was often the designated driver for driving her friends to and from parties because NATALEE rarely drinks alcohol.
In 2003, the most recent year data has been made available by ARUBAAN's, there were 4,236 crimes committed (breakdown of how many of these 4,236 crimes were committed against tourists, AMERICANS, etc have never been provided by the ARUBA “Ministry of Statistics”)
From early on, BETH has stated several times that around May 19, 2005 NATALEE’s brother, who had been on the MBHS graduation trip to ARUBA in 2003, made it a point to share with BETH about what he saw and experienced in ARUBA.
He specifically mentioned to BETH a detailed warning about "Carlos 'N Charlie's" and how when he was there in 2003 the MBHS classmates all noticed that many locals were hanging out at "Carlos 'N Charlie's" and trying relentlessly to impress and pickup the tourist women, particularly those women from the UNITED STATES. (BETH has not said if drugs made liberally available in ARUBA were discussed)
Within a day or two of her discussion with her son, BETH speaks with NATALEE about what her brother had observed and said about ARUBA, plus, BETH and NATALEE discussed drinking alcohol because NATALEE had not been to legal age 21 bars in the UNITED STATES.
On July 1, 2005 DUTCH news-sourced “Hasibokos” reported,
"A.M. Digital" reported that in 2003, Paulus van der Sloot became a deputy judge as part of his training to become a judge. As such he followed training as his wish was to one day become a Judge in the Common Court of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba. He functioned as a deputy Judge, but always under supervision of an established Judge. Paulus van der Sloot was a deputy judge until March 2004. In March 2004 Paulus van der Sloot traveled to Holland for a year and when he returned to Aruba in March 2005 he did not receive the required recommendation to become a Judge. The results of his training in Holland were not sufficient to become a Judge, and he was notified by the President of the Common Court of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba that he cannot function as a judge and has to look for another function.


Almost 500,000 AMERICANS visited ARUBA in 2003 flying in to temporarily rent a hotel room. 77% of ARUBA’s GDP income is solely from AMERICAN’s.

On June 7, 2005 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS ABC TV channel 5 “WCVB” reported:

Local Woman Recalls Alleged Assault In Aruba
North Shore Resident Says Hotel Worker Took Advantage Of Her
BOSTON -- The search for the missing Alabama teenager on the island of Aruba has prompted another Massachusetts’s woman to come forward with a story of a vacation gone horribly wrong.
NewsCenter 5's Jack Harper reported that Police and F.B.I. agents have scaled back the search for Natalee Holloway. On Monday, more than 700 volunteers combed the island looking for any sign of the 18-year-old girl. Two men have been charged in connection with her disappearance.
A common thread links the Holloway case to a pair of Massachusetts women who say they were sexually assaulted on the island after leaving the popular nightclub called Carlos and Charlie's.
The North Shore woman, who does not want to be identified, said that she came forward with her story as a warning to others. She said that two years ago in Aruba [2003], she befriended a hotel worker, who she says turned against her.
"On my last night there, I decided to go out on a date with him. I thought it would just be a friendly, harmless affair, and it turned out to be a disaster," she said. "He took me to the local bar in Aruba, Carlos and Charlie's. He bought me drinks, and after we left the bar, he proceeded to take me to a parking lot where he assaulted me."
While no one is certain what happened to Holloway, many fear the worst. The North Shore woman believes that some hotel workers are using their positions to take advantage of young girls.
"I guess I wasn't thinking and I felt like I was safe with this person. He seemed friendly, and I thought it would just be an innocent date -- you know, go out dancing. I really didn’t think such a tragedy would happen," she said. "A lot of locals go there at night just for fun. A lot of American girls go there and party and they even have a stage there where the young girls, they get them drunk, and they get up on stage and they start doing foolish things that they probably never would do at home. They are under the influence and they are on vacation."
The woman did not tell Police at the time of the alleged assault.
"After this happened, I wish that I did come forward because this could have been one of the people that harmed this young girl," she said.



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On June 26, 2005 “De Telegraf” reported that Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT has been seeing a psychiatrist for some time now because he is short-tempered.
On March 22, 2006 FOX News GRETA VAN SUSTEREN summarized a translated June 10th, 2005 statement made by Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT to ARUBAN Police.
FOX News GRETA VAN SUSTEREN stated that instead of reading it from its entirety, here are some bullet points from Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT 's declaration:
- Joran says that when he, Deepak and Satish went out on May 29th, Deepak’s car looked clean.
- Joran says that it takes a case of beer to get him tipsy
- Joran says that when Deepak is drunk, he becomes aggressive and irritated
- Joran says that before Natalee went missing, he was being treated by a psychologist because he took money from his parents and broke his brother’s phone
FOX News GRETA VAN SUSTEREN stated that in a June 21, 2005 un-recorded meeting between BETH, GRETA, Former Murder Suspect PAULUS VAN DER SLOOT , and ANITA VAN DER SLOOT inside the Murder Suspects VAN DER SLOOT home, that ANITA VAN DER SLOOT admitted to BETH and GRETA that before NATALEE vanished, his parents made Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT regularly meet with a psychologist before NATALEE vanished to try and learn to control his repeated public and private demonstrations of anger.
On June 10, 2005 Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT gave the following statements to his ARUBAN Police Interrogators:

To you question as to whether I am under treatment from a doctor, I answer you that I am not. I am being treated by a dentist because I have toothache. I am also under treatment of a psychologist. This because I felt bad about the fact that the girl had gone missing.

Of the 6-21 not-filmed meeting between BETH HOLLOWAY-TWITTY, witness GRETA VAN SUSTEREN and Former Murder Suspect PAULUS VAN DER SLOOT and ANITA VAN DER SLOOT inside the Murder Suspects SLOOT's home, the December 2005 "Vanity Fair" reported....One afternoon Beth was walking through Noord, handing out prayer cards with Greta van Susteren, when she realized she was near the van der Sloot home. She walked to the gate, thinking she would leave a card. That's when she saw a pair of legs—it was Paulus—in the bushes. She called for him to come out. As he did, his wife, Anita, appeared at the front door, and the couple invited Beth inside for what became a tense 90-minute meeting.In the first half-hour, Beth listened as Joran's parents lavished praise on their son, though they eventually admitted they had been having trouble with him. According to Beth, the van der Sloot's acknowledged that Joran had been seeing a psychiatrist. "Anita van der Sloot told me that," Beth says. "She was saying they were beginning to have trouble with Joran [for a] defiant attitude. The father acknowledged they could not control him. He would sneak out, go gambling, in the pre-dawn hours. They had no control over him."At one point, Beth decided to press. "I told Paulus van der Sloot that he was responsible for Aruba being trapped in hell; until he came forward, I told him, his country would continue to be trapped in perpetual hell," she recalls. Paulus, while insisting he could remember almost nothing of the night Natalee disappeared, began to sweat profusely. "These beads of sweat were rolling down from his head onto the kitchen table," Beth remembers. "Beginning in the last 30 minutes, Anita had to get up and go get a kitchen towel. The sweat was pooling on the table. She had to pat him down." (The van der Sloot's' attorney didn't return phone calls for comment.)

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a widely used manual for diagnosing mental and behavioral disorders (see also: DSM cautionary statement), defines antisocial personality disorder as a pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others occurring since age 15 years, as indicated by three (or more) of the following:
1. failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors as indicated by repeatedly performing acts that are grounds for arrest
2. deceitfulness, as indicated by repeated lying, use of aliases, or conning others for personal profit or pleasure
3. impulsivity or failure to plan ahead
4. irritability and aggressiveness, as indicated by repeated physical fights or assaults
5. reckless disregard for safety of self or others
6. consistent irresponsibility, as indicated by repeated failure to sustain steady work or honor financial obligations
7. lack of remorse, as indicated by being indifferent to or rationalizing having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another…

__-__-__
According to Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT ’s statements he gave to FOX News on March 2, 2006, in the months or years before May 29, 2005...

“Because it was…it was a normal…it was a normal thing for us to do, you know, go to our friends, go to the beach, talk to American tourists, you know, then go out with them and have a good time and, you know, nothing…nothing ever bad has ever happened. I mean, it's happened probably 20, 20 times—---nothing has ever gone wrong.”

++++newread
On July 12, 2005 identity “clevfan” of “Major Wager.com” reported:

I know this is hearsay, but interesting story from a girl in aruba regarding Joran:Anyway, remember John Merryweather, evil incarnate and my mom's cousin? He has a son, named Herbert (Herbie) Merryweather. Herbert is married and has a son, but I don't know his name.
The mother of this son came to talk to my mom day before yesterday and it turns out that her son is a classmate of Joran's.So, got it, grandson Merryweather is Joran's classmate. Turns out that grandson and mom had a major clash with Joran some time before, because Joran accused grandson of killing Joran's dog and throwing it in Moko Dam (place where TX ES also searched), however, the mother threatened to go the cops to make a complaint against Joran, and the Joran confessed to killing his own dog.****I'm not kidding. Not even a little bit.Also, the morning after NH disappeared [May 30, 2005], Joran came with a big bruise on his face and was sleeping in class and could only be woken up when he was pelted with (note?)books.



****Several psychological studies of convicted murderers have documented that during their childhood/adolescence, one common trait shared by many convicted murderers is their history of torturing and/or killing animals with no remorse.

2004
From 1991 to 2004 ROSA PALMER was a friend of the Murder Suspects SLOOT's, and ROSA’s son attends the same school in ARUBA as Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT.
On July 23, 2005 the CLARION, MISSISSIPPI “Clarion Ledger” reported:

Jim Dooley, a personnel recruiter from Charleston, S.C., told the AP he referred the FBI's Birmingham office to Palmer after she shared with him details of the case she said came from Paul van der Sloot during a phone conversation shortly after Joran van der Sloot's arrest.Dooley said he struck up a conversation with Palmer while waiting while his wife tried on clothes in the store where Palmer works.He said Palmer quoted Paul van der Sloot as saying Holloway died after falling and hitting her head on a rock at an Aruban beach.…
Palmer said she believes officials at the International School of Aruba, which her son attended with Joran van der Sloot, know more than they have said.


On December 6, 2006 “Blogs For Natalee” identity “Rammstein” reported:

US state department website - International School of Aruba
http://www.state.gov/m/a/os/56540.htm2006-2007The International School of Aruba (ISA) is a nonprofit, coeducational English-language, college preparatory, day school, enrolling approximately 150 students in PK (Montessori Program) through grade 12. As of 2005, the School is located at the new purpose-built campus in the Wayaca residence area across from the airport. ISA students represent 25 nationalities, primarily representing the United States (30%), Aruba/Dutch (37%) and other countries (33%). First languages of our students primarily include English, Dutch, Spanish and Papiamento.Organization: ISA is governed by a 7-member Board composed of representatives of International Schools Services, Princeton, New Jersey. The School is located in Aruba and is a nonprofit foundation.Curriculum: The American-based curriculum is that of U.S. academic and college preparatory public schools. The program strives to enable its students to achieve their highest possible level of intellectual, social and personal development and includes Advanced Placement (AP) courses in Spanish, English, calculus, sciences, as well as APEX courses. The maximum class size is 22. Instruction is in English, but students may also study Spanish and Dutch. Students in the secondary grades carry up to 8 courses through the school year. Most of the School's graduates go on to universities in the United States and Canada. The School has been fully accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools since 1990.Faculty: In the 2006-2007 school year, there are 24 faculty members. In addition to the teaching staff, the faculty includes a school counselor, a librarian, an ESL specialist, a business manager, an executive secretary, and a U.S. trained, U.S. certified chief administrator. Most staff members have previous international experience in education and 60% have Master's degrees.Enrollment: At the beginning of the 2006-2007 school year, enrollment was 165 students in PK (Montessori) through grade 12.Facilities: The campus is designed to serve 250 students, with a new air-conditioned purpose built facility. The School grounds include open soccer and softball fields, a basketball court, a playground and a volleyball court under a covered gymnasium, as well as 4 large gazebo shelters.Finances: In the 2006-2007 school year, approximately 95% of the School's income derived from tuition. Annual tuition rates are as follows: Montessori � day program: $6,629; Montessori full day program- grade 5: $11,658; grades 6-8: $12,343; grades 9-12: $14,229. Air-conditioned bus service and books are included in the tuition. Fees are payable in Aruban Florin. (All fees are quoted in U.S. dollars.)



ARUBA’s attorney general states there were five homicides and six rapes that were reported for 2004.

(Thank You and Hat Tip to “bleached black” and “the big hammer“)

Brian Battjer's "Ikeepa Diary" webshot album re: this indivdual's Aruban vacation during January, 2004. The photo journal provided animates the attempted abduction of Brian's friend Scott, by a gay local named "Ramses", with local "polis chief" in attendance. The abduction was foiled by Battjer, who intercepted car w/ unconscious Scott in passenger seat, by running after vehicle and physically accosting Ramses. The point of the story related shows that deviant behaviors have been part of the Aruban culture for quite some time, in this case dating back to January, 2004.



January 2004
Future Murder Suspect PAULUS VAN DER SLOOT was the Chairman of the Complaint Commission of the “Horacio Oduber Hospital” in ARUBA from January 2002 to January 2004. In that capacity he made contacts with the highest administrators of the hospital.
**NOTE** the hospital has a medical waste incinerator which could have been utilized to incinerate NATALEE’s body

On June 23, 2005 STEVE HUFF reported about Aruba’s “Carlos ‘N Charlie’s“:

(Vanishing of Natalee Holloway)… A Typical Night At Carlos ‘N Charlie’s?
http://www.planethuff.com/darkside/archives/bootydance.JPG
(photo)
I am not a prude.
Nor am I blue-nosed moralizer. Anyone who knows me well can vouch for that. Very few things bother me, or cause me to look down my nose, so to speak. I have rarely felt it was my place to judge anyone for anything.
That’s why this entry is difficult to write, because I risk that sort of misunderstanding, the appearance of being a prig.
Yet something that has continually generated questions in my mind since Natalee Holloway disappeared on the island of Aruba nearly a month ago is the spin being put on the reputation world-wide for Aruba as a safe place. Much like the original spin on Joran van der Sloot, the 17-year-old dutch teen suspected of playing a primary role in Natalee’s disappearance—that he was such a “good kid,” his reputation “as impeccable as Natalee’s.” Indeed, Aruba’s crime rate is quite low. Violent crime is rare. To be frank, I’d love to visit the place, even now—and my fair skin doesn’t fare well under that tropical sun.
But did the folks making those trips from Natalee Holloway’s hometown of Mountain Brook, Alabama each year with newly graduated 17 and 18-year-olds truly understand, really know, what goes on, say, on a given night in January at a place like Carlos ‘N Charlie’s?
Those who have seemed to take Americans to task for ever going at all, such as conservative Birmingham talk radio hosts Russ and Dee Fine, have made the point that there are great vacation spots right here in the continental U.S., not to mention Hawaii. One of the prettiest beaches I’ve ever seen is a few miles from my parents’ home in Gulf Shores, Alabama.
And from the idea I now have of Carlos ‘N Charlie’s, it would be fine… for someone my age. I’m 37.
To be clear; the photographs in this entry have no direct association with the group from Mountain Brook at all, or this missing persons case. They were made in 2004 by an American tourist from the northeast, a twenty-something man and his best friend on vacation. Neither person is portrayed in any of the photographs in question—to my knowledge all people shown in photographs below were either local Arubaans or fellow tourists from both the U.S. and the Netherlands.
At Carlos ‘N Charlie’s, one night in January of 2004, for instance, free drinks were offered to the first woman willing to come to the stage and do a “booty dance.” That’s her above, on the left.
The next chance for free drinks that night was offered to the first couple to come to the stage at the bar and simulate 4 sexual positions. The couple seen in the series of photos at the bottom of the entry won that round—the photographs show the approximate sequence in which the positions were demonstrated.
http://www.planethuff.com/darkside/archives/arubadrunk.JPG
(photo)
On leaving Carlos ‘N Charlie’s that night the Americans encountered the gentleman on the right taking an impromptu siesta. The large stain on his pants is apparently not spilled alcohol.
http://www.planethuff.com/darkside/archives/fifteenyearoldkid.JPG
(photo)
Then, another night entirely, the vacationing Americans met up with this unnamed young man. According to the original caption with the photo seen on the left, they met the young man around 4 a.m., in a bar. The man showed them around Oranjestad, then had to head home, as he stated he was only 15 and had school the next day.
We have recently found out that the night Beth Holloway Twitty and Jug Twitty, Natalee Holloway’s mother and stepfather, arrived in Aruba, Joran van der Sloot was out gambling at a casino at 3 a.m. Never mind that a girl in whom he supposedly had an interest had disappeared, this fact alone made protestations by Joran’s mother and father on American television about what a good upstanding kid Joran is sound hollow. The unknown young man in the photo on the left speaks of a certain truth not just about young van der Sloot’s easy and permissive island life, but that of, apparently, some of his peers as well.
I went a few wild places when I was 17, and you probably did, too. By 19 I was hanging out like the kid in the photo on the left. Kids party, and people on vacation in the tropics, on an island as easy-going as Aruba are likeliest to party hard. The adults in these photos were likely already quite drunk by the time they decided to do the booty dance or wax kama sutra for the people. As for the drunk guy marinating in his own juices, for all we know that was his nightly spot, and he is there as I write.
Still, one senses something… out of control. On a razor’s edge between total orgiastic chaos and simple drunken stumbling into heaps of humanity.
I’m no prude, yet if I’d happened onto these photos as my kid was preparing for a trip after graduation to Aruba, I would have, at the very least, said “don’t go anywhere near Carlos ‘N Charlie’s.”
I am not trying to second-guess or chide the people supervising those kids that week in Aruba—because I believe that if there’d been a reason to write a blog entry like this before they went there, and they’d been able to read it, they would have been wary of a place where simulated sex gets you free drinks, or young men soaked in their own pee are passed out on the sidewalk outside.
The other thing to think about is that Joran van der Sloot was living in this day after day, night after night. Among the first photos found of Joran online by the tabloid news show A Current Affair were photos at Carlos ‘N Charlie’s website. The van der Sloots have claimed he had rules, that he would sneak out, I guess unbeknownst to them, after 11 anyway. Yet Jug Twitty stood there and watched Joran’s father dial the boy’s cellphone in the early a.m. that first night in Aruba, reaching Joran at a nearby casino. There have been more than a few reports of his father going to the casinos with Joran.
Now his father is also under arrest, and the number of suspects behind bars in Aruba is five. For them, the nightly party, the booze, the gambling, are suddenly, probably seemingly distant, memories.
The photos are not posted here to judge, but for those inclined, to warn. Forewarned is forearmed, and most places won’t lay sights like these out there in the brochures or on their own websites. Know the flipside of paradise, how sometimes life deep in the night teeters wildly on the edge of control. If you’re old enough to handle it—and age is a factor, I believe—go right ahead and party down.
I didn’t post the pics of the cabbie who pulled out his water bong, or the forty-something woman, a dutch national, who slept with one of the men his second or third night there. If the booty dance photograph doesn’t give you a dose of the reality of the unending party on Aruba, the sex-positions-for drinks pics will. Hell, for some people these photographs will be appealing, or at the least amusing—my initial reaction to the booty dance pic was to laugh out loud.
But if there is a message here, it is what I’ve been saying all along; Joran van der Sloot, Steve Croes, Satish and Deepak Kalpoe lived in this paradise twenty-four/seven. Joran, I think, was thriving in it. To him a dark night on the beach alone with Natalee Holloway meant one single expectation, born out of nights watching free drink bare-assed dancing, free-drink faked sex. Joran got what he wanted—the apple of mama’s eye, dad’s buddy. Until, I think, he was alone on that beach with Natalee.
Now the question is what was covered up. Was she dead when she slipped into the water? How badly was Paul van der Sloot sweating that night as he instructed Joran to hold his tongue? With Paul’s arrest, are we seeing the end-game of the Aruban authorities, the final rounding up of the conspirators?
Perhaps Natalee’s fate wasn’t even water, at all. Perhaps it was earth, a stone bed in one of Aruba’s caves. Or worse, fire.
http://www.planethuff.com/darkside/archives/carlosncharliesimsex.JPG
(photo)
Either way, it is hard to not see photos like these, snapped randomly and in good humor by an American tourist old enough to know how to make it back to his plane alive, and not feel like things were slipping toward “something bad” happening long before Natalee and Joran were alone on that beach. That the wild Aruban night, the mad dance of cultures drunk and colliding in the heat was not primed for “something bad” to come down. Joran’s nightly party finally turned over and the underside of paradise was revealed.



March 2004On July 1, 2005 DUTCH news-sourced “Hasibokos” reported,
"A.M. Digital" reported that in 2003, Paulus van der Sloot became a deputy judge as part of his formation to become a judge. As such he followed training as his wish was to one day become a Judge in the Common Court of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba. He functioned as a deputy Judge, but always under supervision of an established Judge. Paulus van der Sloot was a deputy judge until March 2004. In March 2004 Paulus van der Sloot traveled to Holland for a year and when he returned to Aruba in March 2005 he did not receive the required recommendation to become a Judge. The results of his training in Holland were not sufficient to become a Judge, and he was notified by the President of the Common Court of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba that he cannot function as a judge and has to look for another function.


3-26-04On 3-26-04 the “AP” reported:

Dutch marines detained
ORANJESTAD, Aruba - Authorities have detained four Dutch marines on drug-smuggling suspicions, sending two back to the Netherlands and keeping two in custody in Aruba while the military investigates, a spokeswoman said Friday.The four suspects, who have not been identified by name, were low-ranking marines serving in a 200-strong military presence at the Savanega base in this Dutch Caribbean territory, spokeswoman Lt. Melanie van de Haak said.They were detained March 17 during raids at their homes in Aruba, and "had been suspects during an ongoing investigation," she said.



4-1-04On 4-1-04 the LONDON, ENGLAND “Evening Standard” reported:

A BARBER who was unmasked as Britain's biggest ever crack cocaine dealer was behind bars today and facing a lengthy jail term - but Police are still trying to trace his missing millions.Evidence from around the world suggests Lincoln White created an international drugs empire, amassing a 170 million [English pounds sterling] fortune.White, who told the court he was a "freelance barber", imported the cocaine from Panama, Mexico, Aruba, and Grenada before turning it into crack at Tulloch's flat.



__-__-04 (SOMETIME BEFORE JUNE 24, 2004)
Prime suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT and Current Murder Suspect SATISH KALPOE meet for the first time.
On June 24, 2005 Current Murder Suspect SATISH KALPOE gave the following statements to his ARUBAN Police Interrogators:

Deepak and I have known Joran for approximately a year. I’ve known Joran longer, a little longer than a year.



May 2004
On November 14, 2005 DETROIT, MICHIGAN TV channel 7 “WXYZ” reported:

Michigan Teen Missing in ArubaFor two months 7 Action News has been investigating the disappearance of boy from Brighton.Now the FBI is getting involved to find out what happened to a young teen on the island of Aruba.Police in Aruba say Max Devrees’ disappearance was just an accident. But Action News has learned the FBI is now stepping in to investigate this case because it might be much more than just an innocent mystery in Aruba.The inviting ocean and sandy beaches of Aruba have proven dangerous for an American more than once recently.The world knows about Natalee Holloway, the Alabama teenager who disappeared in southern Aruba.But another young teenager, from Brighton, Michigan also vanished without a trace in Aruba. His name was Max Devrees.Yvonne Devries took 14-year-old Max and his younger sister to Aruba in May of 2004. She wanted them to spend some healing family time together following the death of her husband."I want to find out if this was truly an accident. Was my son set up to be taken in Aruba? Was I followed and stalked and my son purposely targeted? We went there as basically a memorial service, privately for the family, in honor of their dad," said Yvonne.At their hotel the Devrees family ended up hanging out with another hotel guest. He was a fellow American, 56-year-old David Stacey Sr.Stacey offered to pay for Max to rent a wave runner so they could go out on the water together."Max was jumping up and down, really excited, let me go, let me go. And I did," said Yvonne.That was the last time she would see her son."They didn’t come back in 45 minutes. They didn’t come back in an hour. Pretty much immediately, I had that sinking feeling something was wrong," explained Yvonne.The Police launched a massive ocean search. After several hours they rescued Stacey about four miles off the coast, but Max was never found.According to Aruba Police reports obtained by Action News, Stacey told Police Max’s wave runner stopped working. He said he tried to tow Max’s watercraft, but that stranded both machines.Back on land Stacey told Police Max somehow slipped away. But Stacey’s story seems to change, depending on who he spoke to.In one Police interview, Stacey said, "Max started swimming towards shore."But Yvonne said he told her something entirely different, "He said, 'I heard a thump and Max was floating away.' I said, 'was he hurt?' 'Well, I don't know, that was our said agreement between the two of us, to save our energy.' 'What do you mean an agreement?' If it was your son, floating away, you would yell out to him, are you okay?"But in his first interview with Police, Stacey told detectives he didn’t have an agreement with Max.Stacy also told Police, "I do not remember if I called [out to] Max. I don’t think I did."But in another statement 2 days later, Stacey said, "I called out to [Max], but he did not answer."Corey Williams is a Michigan detective who is helping Yvonne learn the truth about what happened to Max.He said the statements to the Police don’t add up, "The minute I started reading, I started seeing what I would describe as glaring inconsistencies."Williams is also concerned about how quickly the Aruban Police closed out the case without digging further into Stacey’s background."It appears to me that there could possibly be foul play involved. It definitely appears to me that there needs to be more investigation done," said Williams.In the Aruban Police reports, David Stacey Sr. told detectives that he did not kill or do anything to hurt Max.As for the Aruba Police, they have not returned our phone calls to tell us why they closed their case so quickly.Yvonne wants someone to find out how and why her son vanished, "Whatever you hold dear to you, just make sure you really realize what you do have, make sure you treasure it everyday, because when you wake up, you don’t know if that’s going to be your last day with them."

???? Perhaps the following October 1, 2006 quote by DAVE HOLLOWAY concerns the same person from the above article who vanished in ARUBA in May 2004, and DAVE HOLLOWAY simply incorrectly stated on October 1, 2006 that the person who also vanished in ARUBA was a woman when it was the man from the above article----or----perhaps a second AMERICAN also vanished in ARUBA in May 2004 ????
On October 1, 2006 DAVE HOLLOWAY stated to "C-Band Talk Radio” (audio available when you click here)

Well, you know, It's a matter of getting them out and letting people see what kind of investigation was conducted in Aruba.
Some of these statements coming out and the drop in tourism, I think, was a deciding factor in allowing the Dutch to come in and start the investigation thing.
That’s the only reason, because, when we got on the island, I think, pretty much, the case was swept under the table and if it hadn't been for the news media and everyone’s support that’s, exactly, what would have happened, and it would have been--ahhh--
you know--just “one of those things.”
And, that's happened before in the past--I understand that another girl went missing about a year before Natalee disappeared [=circa May 2004; my insertion], and that was confirmed by one of the police officers in a recent search that we had going on about a month, a month-and-a-half ago.
They indicated that another girl went missing on the island about a year ago, and they didn’t--weren‘t able to spend a whole lot of time on that case, and, they were still “looking into it,” as well. , confirmed by police there in a recent search about a month ago. A year ago they didn't spend much time on it at all and they are still looking into it.



8-21-04On August 21, 2004 ARUBAAN's news-source "Amigoe.com" reported:
Life of the Minister of Justice threatened
MINISTER OF JUSTICE UNDER INCREASED SECURITYThe Intelligence Service of Venezuela (DAS) has notified Aruban authorities that a group of Colombians have flown via Venezuela to Aruba with the mission of assassinating the Minister of Justice Rudy Croes. Rudy Croes has received numerous threats ever since he fulfilled the function of Minister Justice in 2001 with his very aggressive fight against drug trafficking and illegals.It appears that Aruba has become very difficult to serve as a hub for drug trafficking and the amount of illegals caught have dropped dramatically. Numerous projects have helped secured Aruba from drug trafficking and illegals including two on land radars, daily helicopter patrol and coast surveillance.Rudy Croes who already has security guards is now under increased security. The men protecting his life are well trained in case of any event. The family of Rudy Croes is also protected.



8-27-04On August 27, 2004 ARUBAAN's news-source "Aruba Tradewinds Times" reported:

NEW FACULTY HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT & TOURISM AS OF 2005Oranjestad, ArubaAugust 27th 2004,The University of Aruba has set a step forward in having a new faculty Hospitality Management & Tourism by the next academic year in 2005. A letter of intent was signed on August 24th between the University of Aruba and the University of Central Florida in what is an agreement on a new faculty for Aruba.The University of Aruba is hoping to have the founding process completed by January 2005 and to have the first students attend classes as of September of that same year. The students that complete the faculty will achieve a Bachelor degree of Science in Hospitality Management & Tourism. Students of Aruba, other parts of the Dutch Kingdom, Caribbean islands and Latin America can inscribe at the faculty.

*NOTE* the University of Central Florida is one university that Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT was considering attending starting in the Fall of 2005

On November 1, 2006 “Blogs For Natalee” reported about the October 28, 2006 meeting:

Did Natalee have a tickle site, etc...? NO, she did IM on AOL with friends when she was younger, but had pretty much outgrown that by her Senior year.


9-6-04
On September 6, 2004 ARUBAAN's news-source "Aruba Tradewinds Times" reported:

Funeral home pushes for crematoriumCEMETERIES IN ARUBA ARE GETTING FULL
Mementomori Funeral Home has made substantial progress in completing the finances for a crematorium on the island. Presently the manager of the funeral home, Yolanda Wever, is talking with potential investors from the business community in Aruba and Curacao to have the financial part completed. According to Wever it is easy to get an investment loan from the bank but you must prove that the bank will get the money back.Many cemeteries in Aruba are either full or are getting full. The government has opened a new public cemetery in central Aruba but that has helped little in easing the shortage. In addition Aruba is too small to open new cemeteries, the only alternative left is to have a crematorium. “Mementomori” already has a crematorium permit granted in 1985. Aruba has in 1986 incorporated the Dutch crematorium law in the Aruban law, making cremation of the dead legal on the island. Yet building a crematorium is not an easy process, the first obstacle is money, the second obstacle is public opinion says Wever.Aruba is a predominantly Catholic country and the topic of cremation is very controversial. Wever believes that Arubaans are afraid of the idea, this can be attributed to not knowing how the process is carried out. To take away the fear from the Aruban population, “Mementomori” is planning on giving information on cremation through television, radio, newspapers and at schools educating the young.A positive sign is that many locals are asking on the possibilities on having their deceased loved ones cremated. This year we have already received 5 clients that have chosen the option. Locals that have chosen the option of cremating can do so in Miami.

It is rumored that Current Murder Suspect PAULUS VAN DER SLOOT has done some legal contract work with the very same funeral homes owner, YOLANDA WEVER.
If NATALEE’s body has been deliberately hidden, could she have easily been cremated at a funeral home? (If a crematorium is operational), or, in an industrial incinerator? (It takes 2 to 4 hours to completely cremate a body)
Perhaps a funeral home employee conspired by deliberately putting NATALEE’s body into the coffin of another person scheduled to be buried?
Perhaps NATALEE was deliberately buried at the bottom of a grave hole already dug out for another person’s coffin, then the other persons coffin was placed over NATALEE?
Either NATALEE’s deliberate cremation, or putting her into a shared coffin, or burying NATALEE directly underneath another persons coffin, or dropping her body into the vast ocean--possibly within an easily-and-quickly welded together, completely-enclosed heavy metal box or inside a tightly-meshed crab/fish cage, would go a long ways to explaining why--within the first day of NATALEE’s vanishing, at a planned “meeting” held at the Murder Suspects SLOOT’s home-- Current Murder Suspect and criminal judge-in-training PAULUS VAN DER SLOOT confidently advised (or admitted to) the gathered 3 Main Murder Suspects, “when there is no body, you don’t have a case.”
It is also rumored that Current Murder Suspect PAULUS VAN DER SLOOT is affiliated with the then-sitting Board of Directors of a hospital in ARUBA that operates a medical-wastes incinerator within the hospital. This would also go a long ways to explaining why--within the first day of NATALEE’s vanishing, at a planned “meeting” held at the Murder Suspects SLOOT’s home-- Current Murder Suspect and criminal judge-in-training PAULUS VAN DER SLOOT confidently advised (or admitted to) the gathered 3 Main Murder Suspects, “when there is no body, you don’t have a case.”

September 2004
In September 2004, the “Central Bank of Aruba” reported:

The number of stay-over visitors and their nights spent on the island went up, respectively, by 15.7 percent and 12.7 percent during the month of September 2004 compared to September 2003. Stay-over visitors from the United States and Venezuela rose by 18.8 percent and 14.5 percent, respectively. In contrast, the Dutch market fell by 3.3 percent. The average hotel occupancy rate registered a 6.5 percentage points increase to 73 percent. On a year-to-date basis, stay-over visitors surged by 14.6 percent against a 2.3 percent decline a year earlier, while visitor nights increased by 11.4 percent compared to a 3.9 percent increase in the corresponding period in 2003.



12-10-04
On 5-13 the “International School of Aruba” reported:

Math Counts Tutors: Andrea Anaya, Michael Pochettino, Susana de la Oliva, Joran v.d. Sloot, Rochelle Jacob, Maki Wiggins, Brianna Escobedo


12-14-04
On 12-14 the “Caribbean Net News” reported:

Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin (Trinidad) condemns CCJ
by Parsuram MaharajPresident, GOPIO (Trinidad)
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Now that the Regional Judicial & Legal Service Commission (RJLSC) has finalized the appointment of the first set of judges for the Caribbean Court of Justice (which is supposed to replace the Privy Council) we wish to express our concern at the exclusion and marginalisation of the Indo-Caribbean community.
The six judges are: Michael De Labastide (President) and Rolston Nelson SC (T&T); Desiree Bernard (Guyana); Professor David Hayton (UK); Duke Pollard; Adrian Saunders (St Vincent) and Jacob Wit (Netherland Antilles). Gopio wishes to make it quite clear that our critisms are not an attack on the competance or integrity of the persons appointed.We would have been making the same point in favour of our African brothers and sisters if all the CCJ judges were objective and great Indian jurists and intellectuals.
The racial make-up of a court is important in the ‘purchase’ of public confidence. Appearances generate perceptions and are an important psychological tool in inspiring public confidence and buy-in. There is no CCJ judge of Indian origin. We find it difficult to accept that the RJLSC could not find any suitable meritorious Indo-Caribbean lawyers or judges from the Caricom countries. Former AG Glenda Morean was at pains to remind suspicious members of the Indo-Trinidadian community that in the search for CCJ judges, the net would be cast as far as the entire Commonwealth.
Of the 6.4 million people living in the 14 member states of Caricom at least 20% are Indians. They live mainly in Guyana and Trinidad, two of the countries that will bear the heaviest part of the financial burden for the CCJ. If Indian taxpayers are financing this court why are they being excluded? We are making a fundamental change to the architecture of our justice system without catering for the single largest racial minority. This is wrong.
Indian judges and lawyers in the Commonwealth (and in particular India), have distinguished themselves as some of the finest judicial and legal minds in the world and it is difficult to understand their exclusion on the basis of merit, if not the need for the RJLSC to send the right socio-political signal about the CCJ. Did the RJLSC even advertise these vacancies in India? Did it consult the Indian Embassy for assistance in sourcing appropriate candidates?
Surely the appointment of judges for the region’s final appellate court could not be done via simple newspaper advertisements given the specialized nature of the job. Such positions required international headhunting through appropriate HR consulting firms. How transparent was this process of selection given the clear advantage that those with political connections in the Caribbean had over their competitors from the rest of the Commonwealth?
Certain newspapers confidently predicted these judicial appointments because of the politics involved. Prominent politicians were lobbying for certain appointees long before their names were even announced by the RJLSC. It would be naieve for us to deny this socio-political reality. Was anyone lobbying for an Indian judge? What about Lennox Deyalsingh, Mustapha Ibrahim, Wendel Kangaloo, Anthony Lucky, Sat Sharma, Carl Singh and Dr Fenton Ramsahoye?
How does Caricom plan to accommodate the Indo-Caribbean man and woman in light of the racial solidarity and commonality of purpose among Afro-Caribbean intellectuals? One of the main justifications advanced for abolishing the Privy Council was that the foreign British Law Lords cannot fully appreciate or understand our culture and way of life. Gopio wonders whether the present set of CCJ judges solves this problem vis-à-vis the Indo-Caribbean community (how much more does a Judge from the Netherland Antilles know about Trinidad or Trinidadian Indians than the British Law Lords, we wonder). Indians also have their own separate culture and way of life and are among the most litigious in our region. Indeed, some might say that they are notorious for their endless litigation in areas such as land, family and constitutional law.
The RJLSC should have made a point of ensuring that Indo-Caribbeans have some form of representation on the CCJ. We believe this could have been easily accomplished without sacrificing the overriding principle of meritocracy, as there are many qualified candidates in the Commonwealth, if not the region.
‘Justice must not only be done but appear to be done’ and the RJLSC has missed a golden opportunity to make Indians feel wanted and valued by involving them in the CCJ. Instead, it has completely ignored them as a distinct racial group despite the fact that they are a majority in two major Caribbean nations (Guyana and T&T). The CCJ has gotten off to a false start and is doomed to fail because it has telegraphed the clear message that Indian intellectuals are neither needed or wanted!
The abolition of the Privy Council and its replacement with the CCJ is a historic move with serious implications for the Indo-Caribbean population. Our history is one of constant struggle against alienation and marginalisation, for the preservation of our identity and space, in a hostile and aggressively assimilating environment. Our history of oppression and racial discrimination was never recognised by the great African Caribbean intellectuals. They remained silent in the face of Burnham’s racial oppression against Indians and 30 years of PNM rule without a single Hindu Minister of government. The voice and concerns of Indians as a group are seldom heard (far less listened to) in the rush towards Caribbean integration.
Gopio wishes to place on record its strong opposition to the abolition of the Privy Council and its replacement by the CCJ because it is clear that this is an elite judicial institution in which there is no room for Indians. We intend to alert the international legal community to our plight by complaining to the International Commission of Jurists in Geneva, the International Bar Association, the International Law Commission and Kofi Anan of the United Nations.


2005 2005
In a June 15, 2005 ALABAMA Internet message board, a person claiming to be a friend of NATALEE’s stated that NATALEE had stated that she would remain a virgin until she married.

On March 22, 2006 FOX News GRETA VAN SUSTEREN summarized a translated June 10th, 2005 statement made by Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT to ARUBAN Police.
FOX News GRETA VAN SUSTEREN stated that instead of reading it from its entirety, here are some bullet points from Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT 's declaration:
- Joran says that when he, Deepak and Satish went out on May 29th, Deepak’s car looked clean.
- Joran says that it takes a case of beer to get him tipsy
- Joran says that when Deepak is drunk, he becomes aggressive and irritated
- Joran says that before Natalee went missing, he was being treated by a psychologist because he took money from his parents and broke his brother’s phone
FOX News GRETA VAN SUSTEREN stated that in a June 21, 2005 un-recorded meeting between BETH, GRETA, Former Murder Suspect PAULUS VAN DER SLOOT , and ANITA VAN DER SLOOT inside the Murder Suspects VAN DER SLOOT home, that ANITA VAN DER SLOOT admitted to BETH and GRETA that before NATALEE vanished, his parents made Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT regularly meet with a psychologist before NATALEE vanished to try and learn to control his repeated public and private demonstrations of anger.
???? Did Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT meet with the anger psychologist starting before 2005????
Which psychologist????
Etc, etc????
On March 22, 2006 FOX News GRETA VAN SUSTEREN stated that in the June 21, 2005 un-recorded meeting between BETH, GRETA, Former Murder Suspect PAULUS VAN DER SLOOT , and ANITA VAN DER SLOOT inside the Murder Suspects VAN DER SLOOT home, that ANITA VAN DER SLOOT admitted to BETH and GRETA that before NATALEE vanished, his parents made Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT regularly meet with a psychologist before NATALEE vanished to try and learn to control his repeated public and private demonstrations of anger.
GRETA further stated that in the same June 21, 2005 meeting ANITA VAN DER SLOOT detailed very graphically to BETH and FOX News GRETA VAN SUSTEREN the sexual acts that Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT committed against NATALEE (while, as even Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT has admitted vocally and in writing, NATALEE was slipping in and out of consciousness). FOX News GRETA VAN SUSTEREN also stated that while listening to ANITA VAN DER SLOOT graphically detail the sexual acts that Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT admitted to ANITA VAN DER SLOOT that he had committed against a barely conscious NATALEE, GRETA personally felt like she wanted to crawl under the table and hide.

__-__-__
During his June 13, 2005 statements to his ARUBAN Police Interrogators Current Murder Suspect DEEPAK KALPOE stated:

One of the Police officers in the car said that he knew Joran, he had been to Joran's house once, because someone had thrown a brick through his window.


During his June 13, 2005 statements to his ARUBAN Police Interrogators Current Murder Suspect DEEPAK KALPOE stated:

To your question as how Joran addresses his father, I can say the following. Joran addresses his father with his name, he says Paul to him. His mother he does address with “Mama” or “mom”.

The UNITED STATES 2005 Department of State’s 2005 “International Narcotics Control Strategy Report” notes that “while Aruba enjoys a low crime rate, prominent drug traffickers are establishing themselves on the island” and “drugs are easily found within walking distance of Oranjestad’s cruise pier and are frequently peddled to cruise ship tourists. The expanding use of ‘ecstasy’ in clubs by young people attracts increasing attention.”

January to March 2005
On September 26, 2005 Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT claimed to the AMERICAN TV show “A Current Affair“:

WAGSCHAL: What about the two brothers. Are they friends of yours?
Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT : Deepak and Satish, they were probably two of my best friends.

…. 9+ months into the investigation, during his 3-1 to 3-3 FOX News shown interview, Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT claims he had first met Current Murder Suspect DEEPAK KALPOE through KOEN GOTTENBOS sometime between 2 to 4 months before NATALEE vanished (sometime between January and March of 2005).
Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT claimed he met Current Murder Suspect DEEPAK KALPOE before he met Current Murder Suspect SATISH KALPOE.
???? Where did Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT and Current Murder Suspect DEEPAK KALPOE first meet????
According to the Murder Suspects statements they gave to ARUBAN Police Interrogators after their June 9, 2005 arrest, Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT never saw Current Murder Suspect DEEPAK KALPOE nor Current Murder Suspect SATISH KALPOE pickup any woman, nor saw them with any woman in private. Current Murder Suspect DEEPAK KALPOE claimed when Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT picked-up women he only danced and kissed them. Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT claimed in his June 10, 2005 statements he gave ARUBAN Police Interrogators that the 3 Main Murder Suspects go to nightclubs 1 to 3 times per week, and that Current Murder Suspect DEEPAK KALPOE always drove his car. They also go to nightclubs with KOEN GOTTENBOS, FREDDY ARAMBATIZ, and JAIME CARRASQUILA.
**NOTE** on the date that NATALEE vanished, FREDDY ARAMBATIZ was employed by the “Champions bar” located in the “Marriott hotel” grounds
On June 10, 2005 Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT gave the following statements to his ARUBAN Police Interrogators:

To your question how much alcoholic beverages I can drink before I get drunk, I answer you the following. I can handle my alcohol. Since my 15th year I have been drinking alcohol. I am a social drinker. I think that before I start feeling tipsy I have to drink a crate of beer. I cannot answer you how many rum and whisky's I have to drink before I get drunk. If I drink normal glasses of alcoholic beverages I would have to drink twenty (20) to thirty (30) glasses before I get drunk. If I get drunk I feel tired and want to sleep. I do not get irritated when I get drunk.To your question as to how much alcoholic drinks Deepak and Satish must drink before they get drunk, I answer you the following. I have seen that after drinking five (5) glasses of whisky coke Deepak and Satish got tipsy. After ten (10) glasses of whisky coke they are pretty much drunk. I have seen Deepak drunk twice (2). Both times this was at "Carlos & Charlies". If Deepak gets drunk he becomes aggressive and irritated. Sometimes Deepak wants to go home and sometimes he wants to fight. Deepak once in front of "Carlos & Charlies". I am sure that this was the only time he wanted to fight with others. Deepak cannot fight. He gets aggressive but he cannot fight. When Deepak in front of Carlos & Charlies wanted to fight with the man in front of Carlos & Charlies wanted to fight.If Deepak drinks he gets quickly irritated.


On June 13, 2005 Current Murder Suspect DEEPAK KALPOE gave the following statements to his ARUBAN Police Interrogators:

To your question whether Joran is able to drive a car, I can say the following. I know that he is able to drive a car. One time Joran drove my mother's car from the Marriot Hotel to my house. My mother has a Daewoo Nubira modell 1999. He also told me once that he had to drive for his mother, because his mother's foot had been hurting. To your question what car the parents of Joran drive, I can say the following. Joran's father has a red jeep and Joran's mother has a dark blue Hyundai jeep.

On June 30, 2005 Current Murder Suspect SATISH KALPOE gave the following statements to his ARUBAN Police Interrogators:

On your question if Joran can drive a car, I can explain to you the following: I am certain that Joran can drive a car. Joran has in the month of March 2005, driven my mother’s car. Joran drove the car on that day from the parking place at the Marriott hotel to my house in Hooiberg. Then Joran was the only one in the car and he was drunk. On your question if Joran drove the car of its parents, I can explain to you the following: I have never seen Joran drive the cars of his parents. You must ask Freddy if Joran drove the cars of his parents. The parents of Joran have two cars and they are a dark blue "Hyundai" jeep and a red car of which I now no longer remember what kind.
…
On your question how often Joran has driven my mother’s car, I will explain the following: Joran has only driven my mother’s car (1) time. I can say to you that I saw he did it well. I’m not aware of how Joran learned to drive a car.



During his June 10, 2005 statements he gave to his ARUBAN Police Interrogators, Current Murder Suspect DEEPAK KALPOE stated that on several occasions prior to NATALEE vanishing, Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT , Current Murder Suspect FREDDY ZEDAN, and Current Murder Suspect DEEPAK KALPOE would pick-up tourist girls and have sex with them. On at least one occasion they have sex together within the same room. KALPOE admitted that they usually would go to “Carlos ‘N Charlie’s” when they went out, that they drank alcohol, and that they also gambled.

1-7-05
On January 7, 2006 the “International School of Aruba” reported:

ISA Diving News!
Congratulations to Valentijn van der Sloot, Mr. and Mrs. Porath and Mr. Werner on the successful completion of their Advanced Open Water Course! To earn their next level of certification, they completed dives focusing on underwater navigation, reef species identification, night diving, wreck diving and deep diving. Well done!
The water has warmed up, the visibility has cleared and we know what that means....it's time to go diving again! Celebrate the end of semester exams and the second quarter by going diving. January's scheduled dives will take place over the weekend of January 22 to 25. Look for more details in next week's Breeze!
Mrs. Sawatzky
ISA Scuba Diving Sponsor




1-23-05
On June 28, 2005 “Riehl World View” blog reported:

While there is currently no evidence to suggest that Joran v d Sloot threw a boy through a plate glass window, as some news reports have claimed, a reliable source has confirmed an incident on January 23 of this year which may have led to the rumor.In one of what might be a pattern of confrontations with visiting American teenagers - which will be addressed in a post tomorrow night, on the day in question Joran v d Sloot is said to have gotten into a fight with an 18-year-old male American over possible advances toward a female. The male and female Americans were said to be visiting the island together.At some point in the confrontation, Joran, much larger than the tourist, was reported to have thrown him against the plate glass window of a local Dunkin Donuts, however the window did not break.The Police were called to deal with the incident, however no arrests were made and no official report was filed.In addition to the hand-to-hand confrontation, one employee of the Dunkin Donuts has claimed they heard Joran v d Sloot threaten the American tourist with a knife he claimed to be carrying.This report comes from a very reliable and objective source in Aruba.

Relatedly, on August 12, 2005 LINDA ALLISON stated she has received a tip she is following up on from a young woman who lives in ARUBA. LINDA ALLISON stated the woman was at “Carlos 'N Charlie's" earlier during 2005 and Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT asked her to dance. The woman declined Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT ‘s advances, and then she soon started towards the ladies restroom. Before she got to the ladies room, Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT maneuvered to cut her off from walking, then, he quickly pulled out a knife he had concealed somewhere on him. Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT then brandished and waved the knife close to her body and face, then, Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT anxiously exclaimed at the woman,

You don’t know who you are messing with. My dad is an attorney, and I can get away with anything.

LINDA ALLISON stated she has not yet notified the ARUBAN Police about this woman’s claims.

February 2005
Countdown for ARUBA.... (from DAVE HOLLOWAY‘s book, “Aruba: The Tragic Story of Natalee Holloway and Corruption in Paradise” page 4) NATALEE phones her father, DAVE HOLLOWAY and asks his permission to go on the graduation trip to ARUBA. DAVE was apprehensive about her going on the trip, and tried to talk her out of it, noting there were many classmates going with so few chaperones. After some days DAVE receives an ARUBA travel brochure, and a few days later he speaks with NATALEE and tells her he cannot approve of the trip for 2 reasons--he and his wife ROBIN felt the trip was too extravagant for a high school graduation ($985), and they did not think it was appropriate. DAVE does tell NATALEE that he will give her a graduation gift equal to approximately half the trip cost that she can do with as she wants.
With the permission of her mother, BETH HOLLOWAY-TWITTY, NATALEE decides to go on the trip and starts preparing for her Mountain Brook high school graduation trip to ARUBA, a DUTCH protectorate island located in the CARIBBEAN OCEAN, very close to VENEZUELA. The basic trip cost was approximately US $985.00 per person, which NATALEE earned for herself while working several part time jobs.
On December 24, 2005 the "AP" reported “Beth Twitty did her homework before sending her daughter, Natalee Holloway, off to Aruba on her senior trip: She went to planning meetings, and so did Holloway. They asked questions. They talked about underage drinking, chaperones and traveling with buddies.” “‘When I think about Natalee being abducted in Aruba, I can't help but know if she had made a plan with friends to not leave that establishment alone,’ Twitty said, ‘it would never put her in a situation where she was left defenseless against her perpetrators. But regardless, it should not cost our sons and daughters their lives.’”

February 2005
In February 2005 a tourist has claimed to see Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT walking a dog on ARASHI BEACH on the west side of ARUBA, north of the hotels and just south of the “California lighthouse.” They started speaking with each other and Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT claims he was house-sitting for someone who lived nearby.
It has been rumored that Current Murder Suspect PAULUS VAN DER SLOOT fully owns or has part ownership in a home(s) located in the ARASHI BEACH area.
Possibly related to the February 2005 ARASHI BEACH sighting of Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT and Current Murder Suspect PAULUS VAN DER SLOOT rumored to have an ownership or interest in a home in the same beach area, and one of Current Murder Suspect "Steve" CROES personal boats (not the “"Tattoo"” boat he worked on) also being located in the same area, on August 5, 2005 identity “Selena” of the “Riehl World View” blog reported:

Alekia Follow my posts,..the properties listed are RIGHT THERE.......the ones under MORE FOR THIS OWNER connected to the VAN der SLoot listing.... the Holloways need to know this Posted by: Selena Friday, August 05, 2005 at 03:58 AM …
the WHOLE LIST OF PROPERTIES...is the ARS villas the villas are right there. the main listing for the VDS property is backlisted as more for this owner on the REAL ESTATE link. Meaning,...someone owns all the properties listed under that number. like 10 properties... the one for sale is 37 B Salina Cerca.. it links to VAN der SLoot Posted by: Selena Friday, August 05, 2005 at 04:02 AM …I'm trying hard to convey what I think this means. I think it means Joran was at that property. The beach, right there. the racquetball club, right there Marriott, right there Hadicuri Cabanas,..which are windsurfing"huts' right there Steve Croes boat.....right there Posted by: Selena Friday, August 05, 2005 at 04:05 AM



February 3 to 8, 2005
On June 16, 2005 SANDER GOTTENBOS gave the following statements to his ARUBAN Police Interrogators:

On your question if I was with Joran in the carnavals season when there was an incident, I will explain to you the following:
Yes I was with him on that day. On that day there was a parade in Oranjestad. We stood on the bridge at the Wilhelmina Park. That moment a druggie came to us. Joran had given him beer. The druggie had thrown the beer on the ground and started annoying us. Joran had called the Police force that stood near. The Police force had removed the druggie. After a while the druggie returned and started annoying us. He had grabbed Satish at its hand and wanted with him fight. At that moment Joran grabbed him and threw him off the bridge into the water.



On June 24, 2005 Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT ’s gave the following statements to his ARUBAN Police Interrogators; Sometime during Carnivale, Joran has his second of three sexual encounters with Karen Martina, the first having occurred on the beach near the Havana Nightclub. He meets Karen at Carlos 'N Charlie's, and afterwards she performs oral sex on him on the pier because he does not have a condom. Then Joran, Karen, Freddy, and another one of Joran's friends go to Joran's home, where he has a separate apartment. In the car Karen performs oral sex on Joran while his two friends are riding in front, the exact scenario that was, according to CHARLES CROES, Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT 's original alibi-lies version of his sexual activity with Natalee. (click HERE for CHARLES CROES video) At Joran's apt Joran's friend asks if Karen is willing to have sex with both him and Joran and Karen says no. Joran and Karen drink alcohol, Joran fingers Karen and they have sex. After Natalee's disappearance, Karen allegedly tells an attorney that Joran raped her, although she denies having made such an accusation

On August 23, 2005 the ARUBAAN's news-source, “Diario“ reported:

More Alleged Victims Come Forward against Joran
ORANJESTAD (AAN) — Last night on The O’Reilly Factor of Fox one could hear how the parents of an American girl (today 18 years old) who was a girlfriend of Joran three years ago and this family is convinced that Joran van der Sloot is innocent in the case of the disappearance of Natalee.
It was mentioned that the youngsters met each other at a pool of a hotel where the family would have had a Timeshare, how Joran visited the family in the states and how he had contact with the girl via E-mail until recently.
This is contrary to what also reached the editorial desk, indicating that there is a girl of 17 years old who apparently will press charges against Joran to the authorities for rape. According to this information that reached our editorial desks, apparently there are 3 girls who want to press charges, but that two of them have not yet decided, but that the other does have the intention of pressing charges soon.


On 8-25 HELEN LeJUEZ stated to FOX News that a young lady has come to her office and told her that she was drugged and raped by Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT. The girl is a minor, so LeJUEZ will respect her privacy. LeJUEZ stated that the girl was very upset about being raped by Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT , and the girl did report it to a child advocacy group. LeJUEZ described her relationship with the girl as a counselor. LeJUEZ did not know the reason why the prosecutor asked for a DNA sample from Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT.
On 8-25 ELLIS-SCHIPPER, member of the ARUBA “STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS TASK FORCE,” stated to FOX News that girls in ARUBA have reported being raped by Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT. ELLIS-SCHIPPER claims that if the rapes are real, they will each be handled as a separate case. At best, ELLIS-SCHIPPER feels the rapes might evolve into a modus operandi. ELLIS-SCHIPPER stated that the prosecutor can arrest Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT for the rape previously described by LeJUEZ.
On August 25, 2005 DAVE and ROBIN HOLLOWAY stated to FOX News “Hannity & Colmes” that they are so grateful to the girls for coming forward about Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT raping them. DAVE described SLOOT as being a predator. DAVE is so-so on the progress of the investigation. DAVE stated he thinks the ARUBAN prosecutor should charge SLOOT with the rape charges that they know with which they can prosecute SLOOT. ROBIN stated that one ARUBAN girl has stated that another ARUBAN girl was drugged and date-raped by Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT. DAVE stated that Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT has admitted to sexually assaulting NATALEE. He feels SLOOT will be charged with sexual assault.

BETH HOLLOWAY-TWITTY stated to MSNBC on August 23, 2005 that when they were searching for NATALEE and Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT the night of 5-31, and after they learned his name and asked for details about him they were told by someone, “He tends to prey upon your kids, and American tourists.”

On August 26, 2005 FOX News reported:

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, HOST: Tito, last night we had on the new lawyer for Natalee Holloway's family, who said that a young woman came to her office and said that she had been sexually assaulted by Joran. Are there other women or young women who have come forward? I mean, there seems to be a lot of people are talking a lot about it, but do you know specifically if this is fact?
TITO LACLE, ARUBA TODAY REPORTER: This is fact, Greta. The lawyer for Joran van der Sloot did confirm yesterday that not one but several people had been interrogated, or he confirmed my story that I heard from my sources, and he confirmed that many people had come forward. He did not give a specific number. He did mention the States and Aruba, that this has happened, and based on that information, that they put this accusation on Joran van der Sloot yesterday.



On September 26, 2005 Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT claimed to the AMERICAN TV show “A Current Affair“:

Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT : … I have never touched a girl in an aggressive way in my life. There is not one girl that went forward and said otherwise. And, I only have good declarations in my name, so.

March 2005
According to Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT ’s statements he gave the ARUBAN Police on June 24, 2005, he admitted that at his age of 17 he had a 12-year-old girlfriend who he said was in 6th grade.
According to Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT , they had only kissed, and did not have sex.
The 12-year-old’s parents forced her to stop the relationship.
(this may, or may not be the same girl that on June 16, 2005 STEVE HUFF wrote about)

On June 16, 2005 STEVE HUFF reported that Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT had a romantic involvement with a 7th grade girl of only 14 years old until her parents learned of the relationship and made their daughter break off the relationship in March, 2005

Vanishing of Natalee Holloway… Joran’s Young Ex.
I was frankly appalled the other day when Fox correspondent Geraldo Rivera revealed to Bill O’Reilly a rumor from Aruba that Dutch teen Joran van der Sloot, who is now seemingly the main focus of suspicion in the disappearance of Alabama teen Natalee Holloway, had “made a video of a gangbang involving (Van der Sloot) and a 14-year-old.”
The idea of such a thing—which would be considered child porn here—was appalling, but actually I was just shocked that Rivera voiced the rumor. I took it for an instance of the notably iconoclastic journalist doing what he’s been noted for doing for years, stirring the waters and poking people with a tacky stick. We need journalists like Geraldo, I believe, who have a nose for sensation, because they are capable of occasionally uncovering blockbuster stories—but even the Enquirer has scooped the New York Post every now and then. That doesn’t mean I take it seriously as a source of news.
Rivera’s revelation got me to wondering, though—did Joran like ‘em young—at least by American standards—and if so, was there proof?
Some. And not definitive proof, either—certainly nothing like the kind of salacious evidence Rivera spoke of.
But I did uncover proof that the 6’3” 17-year-old who is said to have a penchant for drink and gambling liked at least one young girl in a way that caused her parents consternation.
I don’t know about you, but I certainly knew of instances in high school of senior guys dating freshman girls. It was treading the line, some thought—the old joke was “15 will get you 20.” As in “20 years in the slammer for statutory rape.” But a lot of people justified these 17 and 18-year-old, nominally adult, guys dating 14 and 15-year-old girls with the equivocation that were the couple in their twenties no one would care. I’m not sure now how valid a defense that was, but I didn’t think much about it then. My own wife, Dana, was in 8th grade when I graduated from high school (but she was 28 going on 29 when we met, before anyone gets smart).
Some sources say the age of consent for those covered by the laws of the Netherlands is 12. That does not appear to be entirely accurate. Here’s what it says at answers.com:
For inhabitants of the Netherlands it is a severe crime to have sex with a prostitute below 18, or any person below 16, anywhere in the world.
if a foreigner has had sex with a prostitute below 18, or any person below 16, anywhere in the world, even if this was legal, if this was done at a time that it was already illegal in the Netherlands, he or she becomes a criminal when immigrating to the Netherlands.
That page referred me to an Interpol page for the Netherlands—Legislation of Interpol member states on sexual offences against children. Here is what it says in one instance; the legal age of consent for sexual activity has not been communicated.
Then later on, on the same page:
Article 245 of the Penal Code
A person who, out of wedlock, with a person who has reached the age of twelve (12) but not yet sixteen (16), performs indecent acts comprising or including sexual penetration of the body is liable to a term of imprisonment of not more than eight years or a fine of the fifth category.
Are not 7th graders in most countries usually not much older than 13? Because the pretty, slender, eastern Asian girl that Joran van der Sloot was seeing without her parents’ knowledge until early March of this year was, as far as I could tell, in the 7th grade and attended school with him at the International School of Aruba (Van der Sloot and the girl in question are pictured on the left. I’ve intentionally obscured her identity because of her age). I do not know if she is the same girl subject to the rumor Geraldo related on Bill O’Reilly’s show—seeing a normal photograph of her clowning with other students, and two casual photos of her with Joran—one not indicating any relationship, another making it appear that they could be a couple—the one on the left—she looks terribly young, and the idea that she could have been the same girl is disgusting.
The Dutch are frequently accused by more generally conservative societies—like the U.S.—of being too permissive. I have written that in this blog and was called out for it by a well-spoken Dutchman. So I won’t debate the permissiveness of his European homeland again, out of respect for his words—but Aruba is legendary, I have found, for being a place where “anything goes.” Even posters to the Dutch language bulletin board I mentioned in yesterday’s blog entry seemed to think so. This is one reason Aruban authorities are so rattled by the disappearance of Natalee Holloway—things like that don’t happen there too often, so when they do, the intensity that Americans might assume should come into play in the investigation is, and it appears was, at first, lacking. That’s why we are questioning the original release of van der Sloot and the brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe, even though we’ve found that Aruban Police tapped the trio’s cell phones. Perhaps that was clever of the Aruban Police, but it is hard to not question waiting over a week to impound one vehicle suspected of involvement in Natalee’s disappearance, and waiting until yesterday, June 15th, to do an exhaustive search of the van der Sloot home. To most Americans that indicates a lot of time had by the three suspects to dispose of evidence.
But Aruba is, as we’ve been told, subject to the laws of the Netherlands. And when the parents of the girl in question found out that she was 3eeing van der Sloot in early March, she was forced to stay home from school for at least one day by her mother, and when she returned to school she was so distraught at first that she had to leave at least one class. Which would indicate to me that her parents most certainly did not approve of her relationship with van der Sloot.
So the equivalent of a senior in the American educational scheme of things was dating a 7th grader during the 2004/2005 school year, in Aruba. Mr. Crimeblogger, you say, what the hell does that have to do with the disappearance of Natalee Holloway? Directly, it has nothing to do with the 18-year-old from Mountain Brook, Alabama. It has something to do with the statement originally made to Natalee’s mom, Beth Holloway-Twitty, about the suspect in question though, that Joran van der Sloot’s reputation was “as impeccable as Natalee Holloway's.”
It may have something to do with demonstrating a certain lack, on van der Sloot’s part, of the ability to judge what is and is not appropriate behavior. While I find the evidence I uncovered of his dating the girl to be reliable enough, there is still no evidence he was having sex with her. When I was a senior in high school, I would have assumed that this was exactly the case. For the sake of the girl in question, who is by all appearances a great kid, I hope not.
Here’s the other thing; if she did have sexual relations with van der Sloot, and she was under 16 at the time—and she certainly looks no older than 14—then was the Dutch teen not in violation of the laws of his country of birth? My reading of article 245 of the penal code I quoted above tells me that if sexual contact occurred as described in the penal code, Joran might already be eligible for “not more than eight years or a fine” under the laws of the Netherlands.
The key would be the girl. Is she sitting in Aruba right now, letting this drive her crazy? If she was distraught after being forced to break up with van der Sloot, does she still have feelings for him, and would she be more inclined to do anything but incriminate the young man? She is also good friends with his younger brother, who is by all appearances as good a kid as it was said Joran was. Would the kind of loyalty kids in a small school from a small island community might have to their friendships extend to denying that Joran van der Sloot was capable of illegal behavior with her?
I suppose what I’m saying here, and what I have said in other entries about this case is that one thing that is becoming clear is Joran van der Sloot wasn’t the squeaky clean kid first portrayed to authorities. And if he was being a hands-off gentleman with the 7th grader, why would her parents force a break-up? It bothers me that I happened onto a report of his relationship with this girl of 13 or 14 after having heard the rumor propagated by Geraldo Rivera.
The girl in question admitting to Aruban authorities that she had a relationship with Joran would still not implicate him in wrongdoing where Natalee Holloway is concerned—but if there was an act in violation of Article 245 and she or her parents know it, admitting this might secure the young man’s place in an Aruban jail cell as the hunt for evidence of Natalee Holloway's fate continues. It might only indicate a propensity for acts that are selfish, and anti-social; even by the fairly non-judgmental standards we had when I was in high school, a dude in my senior class dating a 7th grader would have been a pariah.
Is the American media trying Joran van der Sloot before he’s even formally accused? Perhaps. This is partly due to the confusion that is inherent in the reporting of this mystery so far. The constantly shifting stories—the Kalpoes and van der Sloot first say Natalee was last seen being helped to her hotel by a black security guard. Two black security guards are arrested; then those guards are released and one of them reports that at least one of the Kalpoe brothers has incriminated Joran van der Sloot—our news outlets leap on anything remotely resembling a new development in the case, a new search, only to come up empty-handed time and again—the impatience of Americans is one of our defining features, and a fault. We do want results, now. But then again, does it matter that we are “trying” Joran? He won’t be subject to judgment from an American jury. America’s most highly trained law enforcement officers, F.B.I. agents, are only assisting as much as they are allowed by the Dutch government. Aruban authorities have also hopelessly obscured what is and is not known about this case, for sure.
Perhaps checking into Joran’s relationship with the girl in question is a bit like auditing Al Capone’s taxes; everyone knew he was much, much more than a tax cheat, but in the end, cheating on his taxes is what brought Scarface down. Joran is still only barely a man, himself, and no habitual criminal, as far as we know. But considering the glacial pace of this investigation, and the bizarre delays in investigating crucial locations like van der Sloot’s home, perhaps it would be worth it to talk to this girl and see if Joran wasn’t already slipping over a certain line in his behavior with females as recently as early March.
Here are the most recent developments aside from what I reported above:
Fox News reports that Police have;
Seized more vehicles and other items from the van der Sloot home,
Paul van der Sloot, Joran’s father, has filed suit for permission to see his son. The elder van der Sloot’s position in the judiciary has been clarified; he seems to have essentially been a judge-in-training under that justice system, hearing a “limited number” of cases. Incidentally, at the same time I discovered evidence of Joran van der Sloot’s relationship with this likely underage girl I also found that his father had been away from Aruba for a while toward the end of last year—perhaps training for his position?
A helicopter was reported to be surveying areas on the island, perhaps with infrared detection equipment, during the night.
A quote from Aruban Attorney General Karin Janssen about the slow pace of the investigation; “You have to build up an investigation. You can’t just go in there like a cowboy. You have to give certain direction to Investigators.” Cowboy is a loaded word to use when speaking to Americans, Ms. Janssen. It can be a compliment or an implied insult, depending on the context. So whatcha tryin’ to say?
About my source information for the body of the blog entry; I will not give out the un-altered photo of Joran and the girl or any URLs to someone who is unable to prove they are a member of the mainstream media, so don’t even try. The girl in question can’t be any older than 14, and I would only trust someone who can prove they are with a mainstream media outlet with this information, as journalistic ethics should prevent misuse of the information—if it is of any interest at all. By the way—I was only able to prove to my satisfaction that Joran at least dated the girl, which if no sexual contact occurred is only unpalatable and not necessarily a crime under Dutch law—Geraldo’s rumor is still, as far as I know, just a rumor.
Finally—the person I’m referring to in this entry is not Arina, who was the subject of an entry I wrote a few days ago. Arina was a friend of Joran’s who wrote me an angry e-mail. I removed that entry because Arina apologized and politely requested I do so, and I was happy to comply. As far as I know, Arina is older than the girl referred to in this piece.



__-__-__
On June 14, 2005 FOX News GERALDO RIVERA stated to FOX News BILL O’REILLY that he is investigating a rumor that Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT appears in a previously filmed videotape with a 14-year-old girl in a sexual gangbang with others, and the video has been sold around ARUBA. RIVERA reported that an “impeccable source” told him that the ARUBAN Police chief [STRATEN] and Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT ’s father and ex-judge PAULUS VAN DER SLOOT were “best friends.”

March 2005
In March 2005 a BRAZILLIAN man living in ARUBA is arrested for the murder in ARUBA of another BRAZILLIAN man. (The suspect was tried, convicted and sentenced in September 2005)

March 2005
On June 12, 2006 “Blogs for Natalee” identity “J4N” reported:
(Thank You and Hat Tip to “J4N” and “Hoop”)

NATALEE HOLLOWAY: CARIBBEAN STUDY ON VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN
Posted by: HOOPIn March of 2005, numerous Caribbean countries gathered together to implement a directive for a global study, initiated by the United Nations which urged all nations to explore and find solutions to the issue of Violence Against Children.Following the March meeting of Caribbean nations, held in Spain, the Caribbean nations report was released through the United Nations. Apparently, Aruba, a tiny island in the Caribbean Sea elected not to be part of the CARICOM nations dedicating themselves to this issue.As an entity of the Dutch Netherlands, Aruba is subsidized in the area of law enforcement by the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which does maintain membership in the United Nations. The results of the Caribbean report on Violence Against Children raises questions regarding Aruba’s claim to being a “safe island”, particularly when its’ purported “record of safety” is not subject to public scrutiny through any membership such as through CARICOM, which would allow for such public scrutiny of exactly what and how Aruba reports crime statistics.“The impact of violence on the lives of children is a blemish on the face of nations in all parts of the world..." stated the Deputy Director of UNICEF, Rima Salah, who spoke to delegates to the Caribbean regional consultation on violence against children, which Aruba did not participate in.
“There is no doubt that the solutions must come from within..”….However, “it is unlikely that any community can overcome these challenges without opening up to the experiences of others.”On May 30, 2005, Natalee Holloway, a bright honors high school graduate from Mountain Brook high school in Alabama, U.S., was abducted on the island of Aruba while celebrating her graduation with honors, along with fellow classmates.Despite repeated efforts from the U.S. FBI to become involved and assist Aruban authorities in aiding in the recovery of Natalee, FBI officials were limited by Aruban officials in information they were permitted to see, as well as the degree in which they could participate in solving the abduction of Natalee. Unbelievable as it may sound, Aruban officials kept the expertise and resources of the U.S.’s finest law enforcement officers at bay, in what now is believed to be a purposeful cover-up, in an attempt to aid those involved in the abduction of Natalee Holloway while attempting to protect the island from any bad public relations that might result in a drop in tourism dollars to the island.It would seem that the level of corruption involved in protecting the individuals involved in the disappearance of Natalee, may implicate members of law enforcement, high ranking government officials, as well as people with a good deal of privilege, money and power on the island.Natalee, the victim has vanished under a cloak of silence, eerily apropos to a statement made by Professor Sérgio Paulo Pinheiro, an independent expert who leads the global study looking at violence against children, of which numerous Caribbean nations participated; however, Aruba did not. Pinheiro reminded the participants that “ violence against children is hidden beneath a cloak of silence and invisibility”…a heavy cloak of blatant arrogant silence, that continues to conceal the horrors that Natalee Holloway faced on May 30, 2005, as she celebrated her final night in Aruba, before her intent to head back home to the United States.Furthermore, a sinister cover-up that appears to include the destruction of evidence, the purposeful limitations of a search conducted in the home of a suspect whose father was a former judge in training, as well as changed documents, and selectively not collecting evidence from certain suspects, as well as not documenting statements by certain witnesses, leaves serious questions unanswered regarding Natalee's right to a thorough investigation as the victim of crimes committed against her as well as questions regarding the integrity of this investigation into her abduction.Natalee was last seen with three suspects, who continue to band together in their attacks on Natalee’s character while refusing to cooperate further with Police in answering questions as to what was done to her.
The three suspects have been implicated in numerous lies regarding their involvement in Natalee’s abduction, and Natalee’s parents continue to not know what was done to their daughter, or by whom, nor where her body was taken. The three main suspects were seen where two of them seemed to have led Natalee to a waiting car, which was driven by the third suspect. It is believed that Natalee was drugged and then led away, thus rendering her a helpless victim, unable to reason nor to defend herself in any way.A chilling comment: “No body, no case”, made by Paulus van der Sloot suggests a real possible tragic and harrowing cruel end to Natalee’s life where the Police chief reported the desecration of her body, in that “someone” literally moved Natalee from one location to another, so as to deny any possible DNA or any other evidence to ever be collected. Other arrests included "heavy battery", leaving chilling pieces to what remains an "un-solved" case amidst freely walking suspects. This heinous crime against this beautiful child remains an open case, with none of the suspects being held and all of them released to enjoy their freedom, while Natalee has never been heard from again.One has to wonder how serious Aruba is concerning the safety of its tourists from America when such a heinous crime is covered up through such a travesty of justice that would allow the last three suspects seen leading Natalee away, to never be held accountable regarding her disappearance. Numerous lies, conflicting stories, and even blaming one another as well as two innocent men, has revealed the main suspects to be men lacking in moral conscience and moral character because of a chilling disregard not only for Natalee and what she was subjected to, but the brutal silence inflicted upon her family by the refusal of suspects to reveal what they did to her.Aruba allows this charade of what they call an “investigation” to continue, with a Police chief going on national television in what appears as an attempt to slander and discredit the victim by claiming she was "highly intoxicated", and “soften” the blow that Natalee is dead by suggesting the suspects “are not killers”, while telling the USA that one of the suspects changed major components of his alibi numerous times, with other facts changed perhaps more than 25 times.In addition to this, one suspects father, a former judge “in training” who failed his exam, was permitted to speak with all three suspects where the “no body, no case” plan was believed to have been put into action along with plotted lies to tell Police that were later proven as being lies. Time lines were changed, stories were changed, even so chilling as one in which the parent of one suspect never let on that he indeed seemed to be sitting next to Natalee at a casino, based on video surveillance, on the night Natalee disappeared, and where his son had claimed to initially not know her, and then later, to have "dropped her off at the hotel", only then to be changed to one where he claims to have “left her on the beach”.A step back in looking at the a report released by the United Nations on violence against children specific to the Caribbean nations, reminded participants at the Caribbean conference of this study, “that all Caribbean nations have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and that Article 19 of the Convention requires States Party to provide adequate care and protection to children from all forms of violence.” Sadly, Aruba miserably failed to protect and to honor Natalee. And yet, the young participants in attendance at the Caribbean conference (of which Aruba did not send any participants) noted, “violence against children in the Caribbean region seems to be increasing”.The UN report indicated that “The (Caribbean) countries share a similar historical and cultural background, including some factors that are considered by many to underlie some of the violence that takes place. For example, the indigenous people of many of the countries were almost wiped out after the arrival of European settlers in the late fifteenth century. People were brought in from Africa into forced labour in the sugarcane plantations and later East Indians and other groups were brought in for indentured labour. This history of slavery and brutal plantation life are believed by many to explain in part why people use and accept violence.”Further information released indicates that “drug trafficking throughout the region, and trade links between drugs and weapons” not only promotes violence but broadens the arena in which violence occurs. Other reported information noted that in the Caribbean, there exists some of the highest youth murder rates in the world.It is inconceivable that Aruba would choose to not participate in the violence study initiated by the UN, by virtue of their claim that they are a happy and safe island, especially against the backdrop of the story of Natalee Holloway who was not only denied a thorough and honest investigation into her abduction, but even in what is believed to be her death, is denied simple common traits of human decency in allowing her parents the right to bury their child with dignity and respect.The brutal realities of Aruba’s unconscionable treatment of Natalee and her family raises serious questions about their commitment to the safety and well being of children, when it is a known fact that children are allowed to drink and gamble under age as one of the suspects, Joran van der Sloot was known to be a regular at casinos and bars on the island. Through statements made to an Aruban journalist, it was also reported by various classmates, that Joran would brag at school about "slipping something into the drinks of girls". This statement was reported directly to US media by a journalist who stated that several classmates had reported that Joran had bragged at school about his conquests of young girls while "slipping something into their drinks". Add to this, the chilling findings in the United Nations report that “in this culture of violence, some of the perpetrators and victims of violent crime are male adolescents and young adults”….and that “young people are the victims of violence”.It is believed that a shared cultural history of violence towards human beings has contributed to the level of violence seen in the Caribbean. “The legacy of slavery in the (Caribbean) region not only explains many of the social and cultural traditions that have hindered acceptance of children’s rights, including the right to be protected from violence, it also is considered to underlie the widespread acceptance of physical punishment ….and the emphasis at other levels on criminal sanctions as a means of solving social problems rather than addressing them through conflict resolution or mediation.” Problems are linked to “a particular great concern in the region , that being the problem of ‘absent parents’. The gathered Caribbean nations who elected to be concerned and involved in the study of violence against children, heard that “homicide rates in the Caribbean are nearly twice the world average: 22.9 per 100,000 compared with 10.7 per 100,000”.Furthermore, the conference of Caribbean nations studying violence against children heard that “the involvement o& young men in crime and violence in the Caribbean region is a significant problem. Children are caught up in this as both witnesses and victims and, as they move into adolescence, some may also be involved as perpetrators”.Children in Caribbean countries have stated that they live in fear and with daily violence. Furthermore, they say that “violence is portrayed as ‘normal’ and even ‘acceptable”. A further belief throughout the Caribbean region is that “the media are insensitive to the problem and tend to sensationalize violence against children rather than report on it responsibly.” “Of grave concern is the fact that one quarter of all major crimes – armed robbery, assault, rape and murder -- ...are committed by young people, mostly adolescent males between the ages of 13 and 19. The same problem occurs across the region, and adolescents are said to look upon violence as a survival tool, a passport to social mobility”.In looking at whether any serious commitment on the part of Aruban officials exists in wanting to find Natalee, one must ask whether the lack of information given to FBI agents, is a reflection of the lack of transparency in the way Police officials shut out the FBI so as to avoid any public scrutiny regarding the manner in which they conducted their “investigation”.Aruba’s lack of participation in the CARICOM conference perhaps may illustrate the possibility that children who are tourists, while providing the backbone to Aruba’s economy, may perhaps be a low priority given the example of how low a priority the solving of the disappearance of Natalee Holloway has appeared to play out despite Aruba’s claims that they did “everything”….which tellingly excluded the gathering of DNA, and keeping of meticulous paperwork and records, and the throwing out of statements of confession from one of the three suspects last reported to be seen with Natalee.Recommendations from the violence study included the knowledge that children at times could be deprived of their liberty due to having “committed an offence but also because they are deemed to be ‘uncontrollable’”. Other measures could be taken to insure the safety of society from young men who are predators.A recommendation included that a national committee be established “made up of government, judiciary and civil society representatives, to visit detention centers to monitor the conditions …as a necessary step” in addressing youth violence. However, one must consider that in Aruba’s self-isolation from the CARICOM community, whether their separate isolation from a community that employs judicial and collaborative review and examination, might suggest a level of dysfunction on the part of Aruban officials who have chosen to remain apart and separate from such public scrutiny that would expose them to judicial and collaborative review and scrutiny . The abstaining from the CARICOM community, and all its' collaborative efforts insures that the truth concerning crimes in Aruba "stay on the island".The question of Aruba’s commitment to youth safety, particularly that of it’s youth tourists is fairly questioned when one considers that the findings of the Caribbean study of Violence Against Children found that throughout the Caribbean region:“There is weak enforcement of the laws in some cases, and this should be addressed. At the same time, it is necessary to ensure that all the arms of the judiciary are trained to deal with cases involving children. One issue of concern that was raised in the consultation is that throughout the region people seem not to trust the law enforcement agencies or indeed the political leaders whose fundamental duty is to enforce law and order. Clearly there is an urgent need to find ways to restore confidence in law enforcement agencies; one way for this to be done is through strict enforcement of the law and bringing to justice those who promote or inflict violence.”In the case of Natalee Holloway, it is telling that the Aruban Police and government officials granted the three suspects last seen leading Natalee into a car - a full ten days of freedom before bringing them in for any type of serious questioning. This action of granting the suspects ten days in which they could do whatever they wanted, including possibly destroying evidence, was granted to them, in spite of Natalee’s mother providing Police with the names of suspects from day one of the investigation. One must question what motive may have allowed for this to occur. Certainly, heinous acts of brutality against a young and innocent American girl would not be good for tourism. Furthermore, it is chilling to consider that when finally picked up by Police, and despite confessions by one suspect that the three men last seen with Natalee had “buried Natalee”, and that “something really bad happened” to her, the three suspects have now been released, while Natalee suffers the ultimate price in losing everything, including all those who loved her.One can only consider the truthfulness of the United Nations Caribbean study indicating that law enforcement and political leaders entrusted with upholding the rights and safety of all citizens, would be perceived as disinterested, corrupt and untrustworthy, particularly as in Natalee’s case, where some officials began a slander campaign against this beautiful young honors student, in an attempt to distract the public from scrutinizing the three suspects who were last seen with Natalee, and the involvement of the father of one suspect, a former judge in training who failed his certification exam, who was permitted special privileges in speaking to and advising all three suspects along with his chilling comment that there would be no need to worry due to “no body, no case” . To this day, Natalee’s body has never been found and the continuing disinterest by Police to truly solve this heinous case is reflected in the fact that when asked to fill out paper work to allow for a deep water search for Natalee’s body, the Police chief indicated that he just didn’t “have the time” to fill out the paper work. The search then had to be called off.For Natalee, there is no justice, as she continues in her innocence as a victim, to be subjected to a life-time sentence of the loss of everyone she loved, everything she loved, all her hopes and dreams – while those who brutally beat her, raped her and murdered her, leaving her to die alone continue to enjoy the privileges of their freedom. Even in death, she is not free, for her body remains imprisoned in Aruba, while her honorable good name continues to be slandered and smeared in a campaign to save tourism and dollars at the cost of the rights and innocence of an American child victimized and brutally tormented to death.For reference to all quotes from Caribbean Violence Against Children Study: Please read United Nations Caribbean Report on Violence Against Children.


March 2005
On July 1, 2005 DUTCH news-sourced “Hasibokos” reported, "A.M. Digital" reported that in 2003, Paulus van der Sloot became a deputy judge as part of his formation to become a judge. As such he followed training as his wish was to one day become a Judge in the Common Court of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba. He functioned as a deputy Judge, but always under supervision of an established Judge. Paulus van der Sloot was a deputy judge until March 2004. In March 2004 Paulus van der Sloot traveled to Holland for a year and when he returned to Aruba in March 2005 he did not receive the required recommendation to become a Judge. The results of his training in Holland were not sufficient to become a Judge, and he was notified by the President of the Common Court of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba that he cannot function as a judge and has to look for another function.


3-24-05
The March 24, 2005 online issue of the Aruba International School lists 5 colleges that Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT has been accepted to (all in the UNITED STATES): St. Leo’s University, Florida Atlantic University, University of Central Florida, Drew University, Flagler College.

3-26-05
(Thank You and Hat Tip to “Shizaru”)
“March 26: Photos uploaded to Webshots by Bailey Anne, an American girl who traveled to Aruba with her friend Alyse. During their trip they stayed at the Wyndham hotel, across the street from the Mills Resort. Bailey's photos show that on the last night of their trip, the 2 girls encountered Joran, Deepak, Joran's friend Freddy Arambatzis, and Steffy, an Aruban girl who also knew Joran. There is some speculation that a separate photo of Steffy, showing her lying in bed at least partially unclothed, in what appears to be a room at the Mills Resort, was also taken on Bailey's last night in Aruba. It appears from Bailey's photos that she and Alyse left CnCs with the other 4. One photo, taken from the back seat of a vehicle as it passes Diamonds International, shows Deepak driving with Joran in front passenger seat, while the vehicle's 2 DVD players are playing the same porno DVD. Months later during interrogation, Deepak admits that while Natalee was in his car, she was shocked when Satish put on a porno DVD.”

__-__-05
On August 24, 2005 MSNBC wrote, “Occasionally, they want to help with the case. A young woman and her mother approached Holloway-Twitty one night, and told her that the main suspect in Natalee's disappearance, Joran van der Sloot, also had tried persistently very hard to get her into his car after a night at Carlos and Charlie's, a local bar. The women declined. That young woman later told the F.B.I. about the same incident.”

__-__-05
On August 22, 2005 experienced F.B.I. criminal profiler CLINT VAN ZANDT stated to MSNBC that while he was in ARUBA last week he was told that several women “from multiple nationalities” are also coming forward to ARUBAN Police and other authorities and Investigators with their additional allegations of predatory, sexual advances perpetrated on them by Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT before NATALEE vanished.

April to May 2005
In Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT ’s June 24, 2005 statements he gave ARUBAN Police Interrogators he said in April or May 2005 he had his third sexual encounter with KAREN MARTINA in his apartment. Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT told his mother, ANITA, that KAREN was staying the night in his apartment, and ANITA, apparently, approved.

April 2005
On August 4, 2005 BETH HOLLOWAY-TWITTY stated she met an AMERICAN 18-year-old blonde woman in ARUBA who had contact with Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT in April 2005. (The woman is from NJ, and was with her mother when she and BETH first met) The young woman told BETH that while at “Carlos 'N Charlie's" she had observed Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT ’s “predatory habits.” The woman was with 2 of her friends at “Carlos 'N Charlie's" when Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT approached her and her friends repeatedly and relentlessly inside, and he kept trying to impress them. He pointed out Current Murder Suspect DEEPAK KALPOE and Current Murder Suspect SATISH KALPOE sitting in the same seats as shown in the infamous photo of the 3 and told the woman that they were his gambling friends. Another short friend of his came up and was telling the women how rich he was and what a great athlete. He appeared to have an open tab at the bar. When “Carlos 'n Charlies" closed (at 12 AM that night because there was a large fight the previous night), Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT followed the women and was trying very hard to get them to go with him and continue partying at another bar. The women declined his advances. This woman has not yet spoken to Police, but BETH thinks she should speak to the Police Investigators and the prosecutor.

5-8-05
Mother’s Day holiday. NATALEE had hand-created a gift for her mother, BETH HOLLOWAY-TWITTY. The gift is a detailed assortment of photographs, memorabilia, etc. that mostly highlighted BETH and NATALEE when they were doing things together and with other Loved Ones from the time NATALEE was born.

__-__-05
On August 22, 2005 BETH HOLLOWAY-TWITTY stated to CNN that an unnamed 16-year-old ARUBAN girl is getting ready to go to the ARUBA prosecutor and tell about a Spring 2005 date-rape by Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT that also involved a date-rape drug. The woman has retained an unnamed male ARUBAN attorney, according to ART WOOD. ART WOOD also reported that the woman has 2 ARUBAN friends who “had a similar experience” to the drugged date-rape by Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT. EDUARDO MANSUR was present when ART WOOD spoke with the 3 women today. ART WOOD also reported that other women may come forward.
On August 24, 2005 ART WOOD stated to Court TV that he spoke with the attorney of the 16-year-old ARUBAN woman who claims to have been date-rape-drugged and date-raped by Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT and her attorney said she is going to file a criminal complaint with the ARUBAN Police. Court TV reported the rape allegedly occurred circa 5-8, only 3 weeks before NATALEE vanished. ART WOOD stated she has been afraid because she never told her parents about the rape, but she did tell her attorney (HELEN LeJUEZ). The woman reported the rape to the “Child Advocates of Aruba” organization. At this point she does not want to speak to any AMERICANS or the media, and her attorney will work to keep her name unknown after the criminal complaint is filed.
(Thank You and Hat Tip to “Shizaru”)
“Pre-5/30/05: According to statements allegedly made by a 16 year old Aruban girl, Karin Martina, to Aruban attorney Helen Lejuez, she is sexually assaulted and possibly drugged by Joran. Martina meets Joran at CnCs, where he buys her several alcoholic beverages. She later believes she was drugged because her level of intoxication is grossly disproportionate to the amount of alcohol she has consumed. Joran then takes Martina home to his apt, where he has sex with her without her consent, as she is fading in and out of consciousness. Shortly thereafter she learns that 2 other young women, ages 16 and 17, were assaulted by Joran under similar circumstances. In April 2006, after being visited by members of Joran's defense team, Martina declares in an affidavit that she never made any such accusations against Joran to Lejuez. However at a 5/17/06 civil proceeding in NY, Holloway attorney Scott Balber presents the court with an affidavit from a witness corroborating Lejuez and alleging that Martina has changed her story. Pre-5/30/05: According to Joran, he meets a girl who performs oral sex on him in a car being driven by one of his friends- the same thing he later claims occurred with Natalee. Joran takes the girl to his apt, where they drink whiskey and have sex. Joran's friend asks if he can have sex with her too but she refuses. Later, during Joran's interrogation polis tell him the girl is telling a different story, Joran refuses to respond. Possibly this girl is Karin Martina (NE excerpts from Joran's June 24 statement and an August 30 polis report, provided to NE by Art Wood).”

__-__-__
During his June 11, 2005 statements to his ARUBAN Police Interrogators Current Murder Suspect DEEPAK KALPOE stated:

My brother told me once that a girl had said that she had been impregnated by Joran. I do not know what happened after that.


__-__-05
It was sated that in a group meeting before the ARUBA trip with the classmates that they use the “buddy system” while in ARUBA. Trip waivers were signed by classmates and/or parents as needed.

5-13-05
On 5-13 NATALEE attends her senior prom dance.
On 5-13 the “International School of Aruba” reported:

Dutch Language Stars
Last week Michael Pochettino and Joran van der Sloot gave oral presentations in Dutch at the Aruba Examen Bureau along with 500 other high school students in Aruba. This is part of an external assessment process for the advanced Dutch class they take at ISA. The good news is that we were informed that they had the highest scores on the island for the “Mondeling” (oral) part. Their written exam will follow next week. We are very proud of these results and of Mrs. Han Schol’s success in preparing our students. All their competition included native Dutch speakers and students who have been educated in Dutch language system schools on the island.
Gefeliciteerd!



On 5-13 ARUBAAN's news-source "Amigoe.com" reported:

Ball player donates a quarter of a million florins
ORANJESTAD - The Court in First Instance dismissed the case of the Public Prosecutor against major leaguer Sydney Ponson, putting an end to the long wait of the ball player and his family.As is known the case started on March 3 when the Judge made some suggestions to Ponson, which suggestions he should carry out in order for the Public Prosecutor’s case against him to be dismissed. The suggestions were: A monetary compensation for the victims of the assault; a substantial donation to a local charity organization; and 80 hours of community work.Ponson’s lawyer in Aruba presented in court to inform the Judge of the actions taken by his client as to the suggestions. He paid an amount of over 55 thousand florins to the victims of his aggression. We understand that the Judge, who was also a victim of the assault, declined the monetary compensation.He also made a donation of 250 thousand Aruba Florins to several Aruba charity organizations. For what the 80 hours community work is concerned the ballplayer has already made a plan which he will carry out when he is in Aruba at the end of the year.
Considering the above information, the Judge decided to dismiss the Public Prosecutor’s case against Sydney Ponson.



5-19-05
On May 19, 2005 the ST. JOHN, U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS “St. John Source” reported:

Aruba Outlines Public-Private Police Protectionby Source staffV.I.P.D. crime lab and bomb disposal vans stand ready at ACCP conference.May 19, 2005 – Discussions on day two of the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police focused on the communities' role in the safety and security of visitors. In another part of the hotel complex at the Carambola Beach Resort, vendors displayed state-of-the-art forensic and computer technology designed to take crime fighting to a new level.The small Caribbean island of Aruba, which credits 80 percent of its income to tourism, was facing serious threats to its livelihood. Drug sales on the beaches, problems with illegal vendors and petty theft crimes against tourists all threatened to negatively impact tourism.Marcia Grobman, program coordinator of the Aruba Hospitality and Security Foundation, told how a group of private citizens partnered with the Aruba Police to take back their island from the criminal element. She gave a presentation titled "The Aruba Visibility Team: A Model Visitor, Safety and Security Project."
Aruba's solution to crime was a "visibility team" made of private security guards who receive training from the Police force to augment Police manpower in tourist-populated areas. Grobman credited the concept of the visibility team to Roland Bernadina, Aruba Police commissioner. The program, which began in 2000, allowed an overextended Police force to utilize additional manpower paid by private funding. Grobman said the program saw immediate results. Analysis of statistics showed a decline in crime, decrease in drug sales, favorable comments from tourists and positive dialogue between the private and public sectors.Grobman said the visibility team, who wear white t-shirts and blue caps while on patrol, have earned high praise from tourists who rely on team members for anything from a purse snatching to vendor harassment and recommendations of a good Chinese restaurant. The team does not come without a price, however. Monthly donations from private businesses are funneled through a non-profit foundation to pay for the security personnel and equipment. In 2004, the team had an operating expense of $123,000, which was used to purchase a pickup truck, bicycles, all-terrain vehicles, two-way radio communications, training and to pay for a headquarters and utilities.In 2005, the AH&SF is expanding and increasing awareness of the program. Grobman said that in addition to the visibility that translates to higher visitor perception of security, the Police force has more time to respond to more serious crimes.Another section of the hotel is reserved for vendors of Police products. Michael Clamen, regional director of forensic technology for Integrated Ballistics Identification System, stood by his display area ready to espouse the benefits of his product. The Virgin Islands already has one of these," Clamen said, referring to the $17,000 piece of equipment designed to collect and compare ballistic evidence. "I am here to increase awareness in the Caribbean on how technology can assist in law enforcement." Raymond Reynolds sat in front of a display of firearms produced by SigArms, which provides pistols for some branches of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Four semi-automatic models were on display. For all the Police's wireless solutions, Comtex and Datmax were ready with the latest in computer technology. To combat drunk driving, Intoximeters Inc. showed three types of equipment to test alcohol content on a suspect's breath. The breathalyzers were either hand held, enclosed in an attaché case or a desktop model. Representative Mark Gilmer said the V.I. Office of Highway Safety already has four of the attaché type equipment, priced at $3,700 each, and two desktop models, priced at $5,600 each.Several of the commissioners and delegates traveled with their wives to the conference, which ends May 24. Spousal social activities included shopping in Christiansted and Frederiksted and a day trip to St. Thomas and St. John on Friday.



May 19 or 20, 2005
From early on, BETH has stated several times that around May 19th or 20th, 2005 NATALEE’s brother, who had been on the MBHS graduation trip to ARUBA in 2003, made it a point to share with BETH about what he saw and experienced in ARUBA. He specifically mentioned to BETH a detailed warning about "Carlos 'N Charlie's," and how when he was there in 2003 the MBHS classmates all noticed that many locals were hanging out at "Carlos 'N Charlie's" and trying relentlessly to impress and pickup the tourist women, particularly those from the UNITED STATES, in overbearing manners. (BETH has not said if drugs made liberally available in ARUBA were discussed) Within a day or two, BETH speaks with NATALEE about what her brother had observed and said, plus, BETH and NATALEE discussed drinking alcohol because NATALEE had not been to legal age 21 bars in the UNITED STATES.
In DAVE HOLLOWAY’s book, “Aruba: The Tragic Story of Natalee Holloway and Corruption in Paradise” (page 3-4) DAVE wrote “She never showed any interest in drugs or alcohol, and she kept close ties with her siblings and classmates who all care for her very much”

5-22-05
On June 11, 2005 CNN reported that HOLLY BROWN was at “Carlos 'N Charlie's" on 5-29/30, and CNN reported further, “Holly Brown, a Holloway friend who was at the club that night, said she found van der Sloot to be ‘very different.’ ‘He lied about his age, and when we went on the [“Carlos 'N Charlie's”] web site, we found pictures of him there one week before [circa 5-22] at the same place, wearing the same clothes.’”
In that same photo (now widely available), Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT is wearing a pink bracelet used at “Carlos ‘N Charlie’s” to identify someone as a TOURIST.… This is very revealing, and cements very sinister and, more than likely, criminally modus operandi revealing, "its worked previously," premeditated behavior by him.
(his wearing a pink “tourist” bracelet also reveals that he had, at least, one accomplice who worked inside “Carlos ‘N Charlie’s” who gave him the pink “tourist” bracelet, and, an accomplice who, probably, also has knowledge of his predatory activities before NATALEE vanished)

According to FOX News GERALDO RIVERA, about a week before NATALEE vanished, Current Murder Suspect PAULUS VAN DER SLOOT had a meeting with his good friend and the ARUBA Minister of Justice RUDY CROES to discuss SLOOT’s previous March 2005 notification by the court of the DUTCH Antilles and ARUBA that his “judge-in-training” responsibilities have been suspended. SLOOT, reportedly was seeking CROES help in securing a new job because SLOOT’s job contract expires 1-1-06. CROES, reportedly, did not offer him a job working within the Ministry of Justice.

5-24-05
On June 23, 2005 Current Murder Suspect PAULUS VAN DER SLOOT gave the following statements to his ARUBAN Police Interrogators:

To your question when Anita left for the Netherlands, I can state the following. I cannot remember exactly but I think it was the Tuesday or Wednesday before that Monday the 30th of May that she departed for the Netherlands. Anita was in the Netherlands for seven or eight days.

**NOTE** May 24, 2005 was a Tuesday


On May 24, 2005 NATALEE & five of her best friends put on matching necklaces, each with a silver wishbone, as a sign of their lifelong friendships.
The BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA “Birmingham News" reported:

2005 Mountain Brook High GraduatesMountain Brook high school commencement was May 24 at the Wright Performing Arts Center. Honor graduates are Milner Benedict Owens, Casey Lawrence Raymond, Alexander Jobe Fix, Joanna Michelle Smith, Jori Ellen May, Carlie Hannah Stein, Sarah Eleanor Israel, Thomas Andrew Davis Jr., Yang Cao, Joseph Anthony Carley IV, Matthew McClelland Lukens, Amy Powell Roebuck, Edward Urban Kissel IV, Marguerite Lee Lucas, Allison Amanda Mays and Katherine Lynn Bluhm. Class officers are Seth Capper, president; Katherine Miller, vice president; Mallory Sylvester, secretary; and Milner Owens, treasurer. Candidates for graduation:Sarah Brannon Ager, Robert Thurman Agnew III, Yelena Iosifovna Aleksandrovich, Sara Emily Allen, Jennifer Deborah Allon, Frank Martin Alverson Jr., Alexandra Ruth Anderson, Natalee Stewart Anderson, Taylor Brookings Anderson, Nicholas Arciniegas, Elizabeth Garrabrant Ard, Ann Sara Ascherman, Alvah Votelle Barron IV, McLean Carlisle Bean, Blayke Hanan Bearman, Craig Shipley Beatty, Catherine Elizabeth Beckham, Brandon Heath Benson, Dewi Aryanthi Billano, Ariel Bitran, Hannah Stewart Black, Barbara Blount Blackburn, Colin Adams McNeer Blanton, Katherine Lynn Bluhm, Danielle Lynn Bogart, Ryan Jay Broda, Kevin Louis Broday, Steven Isaac Bromberg, Lee Ashford Broughton, Anne Campbell Brown, Holly Graves Brown, Jeremy Edward Brown, Katherine Lee Brown, Ruth Ann Brown, Allison Elizabeth Bullington, Kathleen Davis Burg, April Suzanne Burgin, Sarah Payne Burton, Christopher Alfred Bush, Frances Ellen Byrd, William Randolph Byrd, Elizabeth Lewis Cain, Jessica Ann Caiola, David Preston Camp, Andrew Todd Campbell, John Holmes Cantrell, Yang Cao, Seth Frederic Capper, Joseph Anthony Carley IV, Patrick William Carey, Nicholas Salvatore Carley, Brandon Victor Carlisle, Elizabeth Anne Cezayirli, James Barnett Chenoweth III, Tatum Elizabeth Clanton, Ashley Nicole Cobb, Philip David Cohn, Phillip Mason Colgin, Ann Belton Collins, Megan Olivia Collins, Christopher Adam Cook, Gaines Richmond Cooper, Rebecca Ann Cooper, Wiley Howard Cooper V, Richard Thomas Corbett Jr., Jamie Blaine Davis, Thomas Andrew Davis Jr., Lauren Anne Deierhoi, Jessica Anne Delo, Shannon Elizabeth Denney, Griffin Fleming Dewey, Katherine Parker Dillard, D. Alan Dillenberg IV, Jonathan Brent DiNicholas, Mason Dean Donovan, Isa Gavrielle Dorsky, Marwan Nabil Douban, Kareth Alane Dow, William Maring Drennen, Dawson Elizabeth Drinkard, Mary Ellen Dumas, Spence Michael Taylor Dye, Anne Martine Elliott, George Bondurant Elliott III, Jennifer Mallay Fain, Amy Elizabeth Fall, Claire Stuart Fierman, Alexander Jobe Fix, Julie Michelle Fleming, Richard Abbey Force, Molly Coker Fowler, Michael Ethan Friedman, Elizabeth Ann Gaffney, Julia Sims Garcia, Brooke Marie Gardner, Emily Cora Gaston, Stephanie Lynn Geldzahler, Thomas Edward Gleason, Allison Gayle Goldberg, Cristina Cecilia Gomez, Andrew Mackenzie Green, Elizabeth Marie Haley, Leon Columbus Hamrick III, Miller Field Hamrick, Thomas Bryan Hargett, Virginia Anne Harkins, Jack Allen Harris II, Lindsey Lee Hart, Rebeka Brawford Haynes, Wesley Logan Haywood, Minnie Bell Haynes Healey, John O'Sullivan Henderson, Katie Louise Henley, Avery Lauren Henry, Trevor Allen Stewart Holder, Natalee Ann Holloway, David Andrew Horton, Greer Mack Horton IV, William Garrett Horton, Elizabeth Patton Howard, Marjorie Jackson Howard, James Phillip Huggins Jr., Sean Christopher Hussey, David Gregory Hymer, Robert Christopher Israel, Sarah Eleanor Israel, Richard Lee Jackson III, Mary Conyers Jernigan, Carly Lauren Johnson, Wright Sterling Johnson, Kelley Elizabeth Joiner, Alana Janelle Jordan, Elizabeth Lawson Jordan, Laura Taylor Jordan, Noel Amberson Jordan, Michael William Jordan Jr., James Frank Justice, Joseph Paul Kalin, Sarah Adele Kalin, Christopher Liang Kao, Stephanie Leigh Karagas, John Hunter Kearney, Raleigh Barbee Kent IV, Natalee Beth Kianoff, Alex Oliver Kimerling, Isabella Naumann Kimerling, Victoria Patton Kimerling, Edward Urban Kissel IV, Thomas Edward Kitsmiller Jr., Vicki Anne Koslin, Kathryn Bowdoin Lalor, Justyn Elizabeth Lamb, William Mark Landau, Kay Houston Lanier, Cole Martin Lanter, Noah Abraham Larsen, Tracy Rae Lazarus, Amanda Jean Lee, Martha Martin Legg, Eleanor Paulette Lewis, Mark Aaron LiTVine, Rachel Anne Lofton, Marguerite Lee Lucas, Matthew McClelland Lukens, Anna Louise Lynch, Frank Morgan Lynch III, Kendall Walton Maddox II, Elizabeth Margot Major, Stephen Christopher Marino, Charles Douglas Martin Jr., Allie Franks Matthews, Jori Ellen May, Allison Amanda Mays, Ryan David Mazer, Thomas Reid McBrayer, John Chappel McCollister, Samuel Robert McCord, Mary Frances McDougald, Kurry Lynn McElveen, Michael Odum McGill, Mackin Elizabeth McKinney, Ruth Berrien McVay, Sean Michael McVea, Lillian Chambliss Mears, Thomas Lee Merrill III, Melissa Faye Middlebrook, Benjiman Howard Miller, Carlos Eduardo Miller, Katherine Elizabeth Miller, Katherine McTyeire Millhouse, Bradley Daniel Morgan, Emily O'Neal Morgan, Enoch Carter Morris IV, Margaret Whitney Morris, Michael O'Neal Morris, William Coleman Morris, Thomas Michael Morrison Jr., Russell Hardy Murphy, Katherine Mary Evelyn Myers, Patrick Ryan Nappi, Tor Zachariah Nelkin, John Hughston Nichols, Andrew Jackson Noble IV, Rachel Eve Nomberg, Michael Patrick Taylor O'Neal, Milner Benedict Owens, Virginia O'Neal Page, Samuel Tate Patterson, Marian Courtney Patton, Casey Carlisle Payne, Caroline Carson Perkins, Joseph Hunter Phillips IV, Robert William Plumb Jr., Franklin Adams Pritchard Jr., James Moody Proctor III, Thomas Michael Putnam, David Walton Rader, Thornton Hope Ratliff, Bruce Alan Rawls Jr., Casey Lawrence Raymond, Christopher William Reuther, Bryan Montgomery Reynolds, Daniel Wesley Richeson Jr., Brian Connor Riser, Sarah Savannah Roach, Anna Catherine Roberson, Mary Elizabeth Roberson, Amy Powell Roebuck, Carly Rogoff Richard, Irvin Roth Jr., Christina Ashley Rountree, Emily Beth Rousso, Matthew Pelham Rowan, Katie Michelle Rushing, Stephanie Lynn Saia, Kristen Janeil Sandefer, Stephen Tyler Sandlin, Rachel Christine Saxon, John Slade Screven Jr., Mary-Katherine Sellers, Valgerdur Nielsen Sherer, Abby Lee Siegel, Jessica Lee Simmons, Mary Elizabeth Sims, Joanna Michelle Smith, Lauren Dyann Smith, Miriam Ann Smith, Spenser Holloran Smith, Marie Margaret Smyly, Sara Marie Smyly, James Nicklaus Stacy, Stephen Murray Statham, Carlie Hannah Stein, Yona Stein, Shannon Louise Stewart, Rebecca Claire Stivender, Kathryn Elizabeth Swecker, Mallory Kate Sylvester, Alice Tang, Molly DuBois Tate, George Clinton Thompson Jr., David van diver Thorpe, John Evan Tompkins, William Edward Traylor, Catherine Scott Tucker, Mallie Elizabeth Tucker, Mark Richardson Tucker Jr., Lane Perritt Turbeville, Thomas Allan Twitty, William Hunter Twitty, Haleigh Nicole Uncapher, Christopher Forbes Vargo, Jackson Robert Vaughan, Murry Caldwell Vaughan Jr., Andrew Fitz Randolph von Kuhn, Kyle Lawrence Wall, Margaret Brooks Wall, Elizabeth Cade Walston, Rachel Katherine Walton, Whitney Littrell Warwick, Margaret Frances Watson, Nancy Laraine Watson, Ryan Mathew Watson, Katherine Jane Weatherly, James Paul Weinacker, Allie Michelle Weiner, Joevelyn Welden, Brent Matthew Westlake, Katherine Madison Whatley, Thomas Hunter Molton Williams, Millard Lamar Williamson III, Crossley Edward Willis III, Mary Lassiter Wood, Katherine Ann Wright, Vivian Brooking Yeilding, Emily Grace Zeigler.



5-25-05
On May 30, 2006 FOX News showed film of NATALEE’s bedroom in BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA. BETH HOLLOWAY-TWITTY stated to FOX News GRETA VAN SUSTEREN that she has hardly changed anything from how NATALEE left her bedroom for the last time. Of interest was NATALEE’s large, writable calendar showing that NATALEE had planned her activities ahead-of-time, at least, 3 months in advance, into August 2005 when she wrote reminders to herself on her calendar, including her exclaiming the start date for her college scholarship career at the University of Alabama which was uniquely circled boldly with a wide magic marker.
There was also a dated entry that NATALEE wrote on a calendar date that read “PHILANTHROPY.” The “American Heritage Dictionary” definition of “philanthropy” is….

Philanthropy1. An activity performed with the goal of promoting the well being of fellow man.2. To dispense or receive aid in the form of a gift from funds intentioned for humanitarian purposes.



On June 23, 2005 Current Murder Suspect PAULUS VAN DER SLOOT gave the following statements to his ARUBAN Police Interrogators:

To your question when Anita left for the Netherlands, I can state the following. I cannot remember exactly but I think it was the Tuesday or Wednesday before that Monday the 30th of May that she departed for the Netherlands. Anita was in the Netherlands for seven or eight days.

**NOTE** May 25, 2005 was a Wednesday


Before departing for ARUBA, NATALEE writes and mails her father, DAVID EDWARD HOLLOWAY, her “Thank you” letter for money he gave her for her high school graduation gift.

5-26-05
At about 4:00 AM on 5-26 BETH drives NATALEE to a friend’s home and tells her she will pick NATALEE up at the airport when she returns. The friend’s mother drove several of the 125 high school seniors graduated classmates to the airport (the majority of the graduated seniors, but not all, were from NATALEE’s Mountain Brook high school). The classmates and 7 adult chaperones-facilitators-escorts departed for and arrived in ARUBA (the chaperones held scheduled meetings with the graduates at noon every day). Some of the chaperones had been chaperones on the previous ARUBA graduation trips.

4:00 PM = earliest check-in time at the “Holiday Inn”
After landing on 2 separate planes in ARUBA on May 26, the group stays at the “Holiday Inn Sunspree,” located in ARUBA in PALM BEACH on the far western shoreline. The classmates’ passports were collected by the chaperones and the classmates were passed out hotel room keys. The chaperones told the students that a daily meeting will be held at the “Holiday Inn” at noon to make sure everyone is okay, learn if there are any problems, everyone is healthy, etc.
NATALEE’s room number 7114 roommates are LEE BROUGHTON, MADISON WHATLEY, and RUTH McVAY.
On November 1, 2006 “Blogs For Natalee” reported about the October 28, 2006 meeting:

Did she have a prepaid phone in Aruba? NO



On November 1, 2006 “Blogs For Natalee” reported about the October 28, 2006 meeting:

Did Security Guard attempt to break into their room? YES, this was reported but do not know who it was.



In his June 10, 2005 statements he gave to the ARUBAN Police Interrogators, Current Murder Suspect DEEPAK KALPOE claimed he never cleaned-out nor washed his “Honda” car during the 2 weeks prior to his June 9, 2005 arrest.

On June 27, 2005 a local BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA NBC TV channel 13 reported about comments from one of NATALEE‘s friends, JAMIE JUSTICE, on the ARUBA trip,

The Natalee Holloway case's main suspect, Joran van der Sloot, was no stranger to the Mountain Brook group. He'd been hanging out with them all week, according to one of Holloway's friends, NBC 13 reported. Jamie Justice said she got to know van der Sloot at the Black Jack table. “The way he came off wasn't at all in a threatening way,“ Justice said. “He was really naive to everybody.” Justice and many of Holloway's friends thought van der Sloot was a fellow tourist. “He didn't look like one of the locals and he didn't act like one of the locals,” Justice said. “He acted more like he was just down there vacationing.”

On July 27, 2005 DAVE HOLLOWAY stated to CNNHN:

I did not have the opportunity to speak with her friends, but later on, I did find out that Joran had indicated to the group that he was a student visiting here from Holland. And the group thought he was a guest at the Holiday Inn. And when they left Carlos and Charlie`s, he left with Natalee and Natalee alone. I suppose that Deepak was waiting in the car, and she may have thought it was a taxi. The Satish boy may have entered the car after Natalee and the other guys were already in the vehicle.



On October 1, 2006 DAVE HOLLOWAY stated to "C-Band Talk Radio” (audio available when you click here) that “Well, Beth would be the one to best answer that. But in my conversations with her--
No.
Natalee did not make a telephone call from Aruba back to the U.S.
That did not happen.”
5-27-05
12:00 PM = The chaperones had the daily meeting with the Mountain Brook high school graduates

On June 22, 2005 the “Birmingham News” reported “Trey Merrill and Beau Barron, who were on the Aruba trip, said they decided to host the fund-raiser after Barron's uncle donated a large grill and food. They took in donations while students wearing yellow ribbons flagged down drivers at U.S. 280 and Dolly Ridge Road. The two teens said they had encountered van der Sloot while playing cards at their hotel casino. Police have said van der Sloot met Holloway there at least two days before she disappeared. [5-27] But Merrill, Barron and other students said they didn't know anything about [Steve] Croes.” [my insertion]
On 5-30 at 10:30 AM when NATALEE was first noticed as not being present many of the Mountain Brook high school classmates described to the chaperones that NATALEE was last seen with a boy who had always told the classmates that he was a DUTCH, foreign exchange student and tourist who said he was staying at the “Holiday Inn” as a tourist. The DUTCH foreign exchange student and tourist is described as tall, dark-haired, and that NATALEE was last seen with him outside of "Carlos 'N Charlie's" at about 1:00 AM getting into a small, silver or gray car with tinted windows and an oversized muffler.
Several of the Mountain Brook high school classmates told the May 30, 2005 searching chaperone and the UNITED STATES F.B.I. upon their return that Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT lied to them that he was a DUTCH foreign exchange student and tourist who was (temporarily) staying at the “Holiday Inn” as a tourist.
On June 1, 2005 the first public ARUBAN media news account of NATALEE being missing was made in the morning edition of the ARUBAAN's news-source "Diario" newspaper. The translated article says who NATALEE is, where NATALEE is from, why NATALEE is here, who NATALEE came with, and that NATALEE was last seen getting into a gray car with a young male who she believed to be a DUTCH tourist, but who turned out to be a drug dealer. The ARUBAN Police have taken him in for questioning. The ARUBAN Police are asking everyone to keep an eye out for NATALEE and call the telephone numbers given in the article as soon as anyone sees NATALEE.
On June 2, 2005 the “Washington Post” reported, “Her stepmother, Robin Holloway, said Natalee was last seen with a local resident who lied that he was a foreign exchange student. Robin Holloway said the man has been identified and questioned by Police.”
On June 27, 2005 a local BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA NBC TV channel 13 reported about comments from one of NATALEE‘s friends, JAMIE JUSTICE, on the ARUBA trip,

The Natalee Holloway case's main suspect, Joran van der Sloot, was no stranger to the Mountain Brook group. He'd been hanging out with them all week, according to one of Holloway's friends, NBC 13 reported. Jamie Justice said she got to know van der Sloot at the Black Jack table. “The way he came off wasn't at all in a threatening way,“ Justice said. “He was really naive to everybody.” Justice and many of Holloway's friends thought van der Sloot was a fellow tourist. “He didn't look like one of the locals and he didn't act like one of the locals,” Justice said. “He acted more like he was just down there vacationing.” On May [29], Holloway and her friends headed to the beach and pool around 10:00 a.m. for a full day of sun. At 8:30 p.m., they had dinner in the hotel restaurant and then went to the hotel casino where Holloway met van der Sloot. At about 11 p.m., Holloway and her friends went to Carlos and Charlie's bar where they once again ran into van der Sloot. Justice said Holloway spent most the night with her friends, not van der Sloot. However, at about 1:30 a.m. Holloway and van der Sloot left the bar together. Justice says although Holloway is a sweet person she isn't overly trusting.


On June 1, 2005 “AL.com” reported, “teen was last seen with a local of Aruba, who claimed to be a foreign exchange student.”
On July 26, 2005 LINDA ALLISON also re-emphasized that Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT had lied to every Mountain Brook high school classmate he spoke to, claiming he was a foreign exchange student and tourist who was a tourist staying at the “Holiday Inn.”
On August 5, 2005 FIERMAN stated to FOX News that Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT had lied and told the girls that he was a soccer player who lived and went to school in HOLLAND, and lied that he was a 19-year-old.

BETH HOLLOWAY-TWITTY stated to MSNBC on August 23, 2005 that when they were searching for NATALEE and Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT the night of 5-31, and after they learned his name and asked for details about him they were told by someone, “He tends to prey upon your kids, and American tourists.”

3:00 PM to 3:15 PM = According to ELIZABETH CAIN’s statements to the FBI she saw NATALEE at the “Holiday Inn” pool area around 3:00 to 3:15 PM on May 27, 2005.

3:45 PM to 5:00 PM = According to ELIZABETH CAIN’s statements to the FBI she saw NATALEE on the “Holiday Inn” beach area from 3:45 to 5:00 PM on May 27, 2005.
On September 29, 2005 the newspaper “Solo di Pueblo” reported that an ARUBAN cab driver came forward with information about the Friday [5-27] before Natalee disappeared. The cab driver said that he took Natalee and friend and two guys back to the hotel and where they argued about Natalee being in love with a Dutch boy. The two guys were pretty mad at her and the cab driver asked them what the problem was. They just told him that they could not accept that Natalee is on vacation and suddenly fell in love with somebody she just knew. Days after, when Natalee's face became well known on the island and the driver recognized her, he was interrogated by ARUBAN authorities and the cab drivers statements were documented.
On October 1, 2006 DAVE HOLLOWAY stated to "C-Band Talk Radio” (audio available when you click here) that the story about NATALEE falling in love with a DUTCH, blue-eyed man/boy and her phoning BETH about it are false; DAVE stated the rumor is “Total propaganda.”
On November 1, 2006 “Blogs For Natalee” reported about the October 28, 2006 meeting:

Is there a Blue Eyed Dutch Boy? NO, there is no blue eyed Dutch boy.


8:30 PM = According to ELIZABETH CAIN’s statements to the FBI she saw NATALEE at “Carlos 'N Charlie's” at 8:30 PM on May 27, 2005.

__:__ AM or earlier PM (?) = NATALEE's friends saw Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT both in the “Holiday Inn” “Excelsior casino” where they were staying and at “Carlos 'N Charlie's,” and a friend of Holloway said Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT got into a scuffle with some of the “Mountain Brook” guys at the bar. "I broke it up," said BRYAN REYNOLDS, 18. "It was outside the ‘Carlos 'N Charlie's’ the second night [5-27] we were there." Reynolds didn't elaborate.
On June 10, 2005 the BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA “Birmingham-Post Herald” reported interviewing BRYAN REYNOLDS. The article described how SLOOT and a friend of REYNOLD’s almost started fighting each other, apparently when SLOOT was talking to NATALEE, but REYNOLD’s broke up the fight, which occurred in an un-named bar the Mountain Brook high school classmates had gone to in ARUBA.
On April 29, 2006 “Riehl World View” blog reported:

Unclear of the source for this below. However, as I posted before, there was an altercation at C and C the night Natalee disappeared. But I was told by someone there that the Kalpoes were involved and it was over a spilled drink, nothing to do with Natalee Holloway. I was also told of an altercation the previous night [5-28] when a tall Dutch kid, not Joran, approached Natalee and groped her while she was dancing. That would fit with part of this report below.
My info did come from individuals present at C and C both nights.
GVC [Murder Suspect Gottfried van Cromvoirt] was bothering Natalee on Friday night at Carlos N Charlies. She was dancing with another classmate and this guy (GVC) came up behind her and started humping and grinding on her back and groping her body. She turned around and yelled at him to leave her alone so he left.

[my insertions]

__:__ AM or earlier PM (?) = On September 29, 2005 the newspaper “Solo di Pueblo” reported that an ARUBAN cab driver cam forward with information about the Friday [May 27, 2005] before Natalee disappeared. The cab driver said that he took Natalee and friend and two guys back to the hotel and where they argued about Natalee being in love with a Dutch boy. The two guys were pretty mad at her and the cab driver asked them what the problem was. They just told him that they could not accept that Natalee is on vacation and suddenly fell in love with somebody she just knew. Days after, when Natalee's face became well known on the island and the driver recognized her, he was interrogated by ARUBAN authorities and the cab drivers statements were documented.
On 4-24 ABC News reported:

ABC News has learned that van Cromvoirt's April 15 arrest occurred after Police identified him as someone who may have had physical relations with the Alabama teen while she was on vacation in Aruba.
Police followed a trail of evidence that began with a cabdriver, who wants to remain anonymous. The cabdriver told Police she drove an intoxicated Holloway and her friends one night and heard Holloway talking about being in love with a "Dutch boy."
Aruban Police interviewed Holloway's friends in Alabama and say they confirmed the cabdriver's description, including more details about the man Holloway allegedly said she loved. The friends provided a physical description and a first initial — G. Van Cromvoirt allegedly matches the description. He was arrested, but did not answer questions during a week of interrogation.



On October 1, 2006 DAVE HOLLOWAY stated to "C-Band Talk Radio” (audio available when you click here) that “Well, Beth would be the one to best answer that. But in my conversations with her--
No.
Natalee did not make a telephone call from Aruba back to the U.S.
That did not happen.”
5-28-05

1:30 AM = According to ELIZABETH CAIN’s statements to the FBI she left “Carlos 'N Charlie's” at 1:30 AM on May 28, 2005. CAIN did not see NATALEE when CAIN left and assumed that NATALEE had already left.

There is a unsubstantiated rumor that sometime after she left “Carlos 'N Charlie's” before 1:30 AM on May 28, 2005 that NATALEE was captured on a security camera video tape inside a jewelry store located within the “Wyndham Hotel.” She is seen with an unidentified, young man, supposedly, arguing. It has been speculated that the male wanted to purchase an item of jewelry for NATALEE, but she refused his offer and purchased it herself. It has also been speculated that NATALEE wanted to purchase the jewelry, and the young man also wanted to purchase it (for someone else besides NATALEE). In either event, they then took their argument outside of the jewelry store, and out of the security camera‘s view. The jewelry sales woman cannot confirm if the young man was an AMERICAN or DUTCHMAN.

On June 24, 2005 the “AP” reported “The elder van der Sloot ‘is a suspect in the disappearance’ of Holloway, said Mariaine Croes, spokeswoman for the Aruban Attorney General's office. Authorities have described all five men currently in custody as ‘suspects.’ But it was not clear if each was suspected in the woman's disappearance or if some were suspected only of a lesser crime in connection with the case, such as withholding evidence. Contacted by the AP hours before his arrest, Paul van der Sloot declined to comment on the case.” “Anita van der Sloot said she and her husband received a call from neighbors saying Police were waiting for them at their home in Noord, northwest of the capital, Oranjestad. She then called Police Superintendent Jan van der Straten, who asked them to come to the Police station. When they arrived, authorities ‘took my husband into custody as a suspect,’ Anita van der Sloot said, adding, ‘I don't know what to think.’” “Police say Joran met Holloway at a casino two days before her disappearance.” [= May 28, 2005]
On June 27, 2005 a local BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA NBC TV channel 13 reported about comments from one of NATALEE‘s friends, JAMIE JUSTICE, on the ARUBA trip,

The Natalee Holloway case's main suspect, Joran van der Sloot, was no stranger to the Mountain Brook group. He'd been hanging out with them all week, according to one of Holloway's friends, NBC 13 reported. Jamie Justice said she got to know van der Sloot at the Black Jack table. “The way he came off wasn't at all in a threatening way,“ Justice said. “He was really naive to everybody.” Justice and many of Holloway's friends thought van der Sloot was a fellow tourist. “He didn't look like one of the locals and he didn't act like one of the locals,” Justice said. “He acted more like he was just down there vacationing.”



12:00 PM = The chaperones had the daily meeting with the Mountain Brook high school graduates

1:00 PM to 5:00 PM = On May 28, 2005 NATALEE and her friends MADISON WHATLEY, NANCY WATSON and ELIZABETH CAIN all go on an ocean snorkeling trip to a sunken ship from 1:00 PM until about 5:00 PM.

__:__ PM = Upon returning to the “Holiday Inn,“ CAIN goes to the swimming pool area and sees that NATALEE is also there.

__:__ PM = CAIN sees NATALEE having her dinner within the open pavilion area of the “Holiday Inn.”

__:__ PM = After dinner, CAIN also sees NATALEE at a “Holiday Inn” indoor bar speaking for about 30 minutes with a man whom CAIN thinks is a “local.”

__:__ PM = Later the same early May 28, 2005 evening, BRIAN RISER observes a tall, dark-haired, sunburned, young 18-to-19-year-old male speaking with FRANCES BYRD and LEE BROUGHTON. RISER told the FBI that the young man was Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT.

__:__ PM = NATALEE goes to “Carlos 'N Charlie's”

__:__ PM = On 5-28 Prime Murder Suspect JORAN VAN DER SLOOT, Current Murder Suspect DEEPAK KALPOE , and Current Murder Suspect SATISH KALPOE go to “Carlos 'N Charlie's” together. No one, including the Main Murder Suspects, has stated that they interacted or even spoke with NATALEE at “Carlos 'N Charlie's.“

On October 1, 2006 DAVE HOLLOWAY stated to "C-Band Talk Radio” (audio available when you click here) that “Well, Beth would be the one to best answer that. But in my conversations with her--
No.
Natalee did not make a telephone call from Aruba back to the U.S.
That did not happen.”