Joran van der Sloot, Suspect in Natalee Holloway Case, Arrives in U.S. to Face Charges

Joran van der Sloot, the primary suspect in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, arrived in the U.S. to face charges of extortion and wire fraud, according to multiple reports.

WBRC, AL.com and CNN report van der Sloot arrived in Alabama after taking a plane from Peru.

Van der Sloot, 35, was on charges that he allegedly tried to extort $250,000 from Natalee’s mother, Beth Holloway, back in 2010 in exchange for leading the family to the location of Natalee’s body.

He has long been considered the main suspect in the 2005 disappearance of Natalee, an 18-year-old high school senior from Birmingham, Ala., who was on a class trip to Aruba when she vanished.

She was last seen with van der Sloot and two other men driving away from a nightclub on May 30, 2005, PEOPLE previously reported.

Authorities determined that van der Sloot's alleged promise to disclose the location of Natalee's body to her family in exchange for money was false, and her remains have never been found.

Authorities declared Natalee legally dead in 2012.

Van der Sloot is currently serving a 28-year prison sentence for the 2010 murder of Stephany Flores, a 21-year-old Peruvian college student, who was killed five years to the day of Natalee's disappearance.

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In May, the Peruvian government issued a decree allowing van der Sloot to be handed over to U.S. authorities before the completion of his prison sentence in Peru.

“We hope that this action will enable a process that will help to bring peace to Mrs. Holloway and to her family, who are grieving in the same way that the Flores family in Peru is grieving for the loss of their daughter, Stephany,” Peru’s ambassador to the United States, Gustavo Meza-Cuadra said in a May statement obtained by The New York Times.

“It has been a very long and painful journey, but the persistence of many is going to pay off. Together, we are finally getting justice for Natalee,” Beth Holloway said in a statement, per the Times.