Natalee Holloway
disappeared in Aruba on May 30, 2005 — and the top suspect was under investigation for the disappearances of young women he recruited for the Thailand sex industry!
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The disturbing new report on
confessed killer Joran van der Sloot was unearthed by
The National ENQUIRER — as a source with Thai law enforcement said: "There are girls who went missing in Bangkok while van der Sloot was there. Thai investigators are looking into whether he might have been involved."
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"Girls who are approached by sex traffickers here often get killed," added the insider, "especially if they discover they are being tricked into prostitution and start to resist or threaten to go to the police...If they go missing, nobody notices. It's easy to kill them, hide the bodies and get away with it!"
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Van der Sloot made a move to Bangkok in 2008 — after authorities in Aruba failed to charge him with the disappearance of Natalee, an Alabama teen who was visiting the resort town as part of a high-school trip. He's now
jailed in Peru after
admitting to the 2010 murder of college student Stephany Flores in Lima.
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While in Bangkok, van der Sloot recruited women for the sex trade by posing as a production consultant for a modeling agency, according to sources, who say that he went by the alias of "Murphy Jenkins." He printed up bogus business cards which listed the phone number of a friend who agreed to back up his phony story.
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But
his desperate girl-peddling scam was cut short after he contacted a pal in Holland, asking for help getting into the sex trafficking trade. Instead, his friend contacted Dutch journalist Peter de Vries, who caught the depraved creep in a sting operation at Bangkok's Landmark Hotel.
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"Joran showed up with several girls he'd recruited by telling them they'd be photo models in Holland," de Vries told The ENQUIRER. "He promised they'd make big money and live a luxurious life. In reality, his plan was that once they arrived in Holland, they'd be forced into prostitution in Dutch brothels."
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Major General Suvitpol Imjairath, whose task force investigates human trafficking in Bangkok, told The ENQUIRER: "Many small towns here have undereducated, unemployed girls looking for a chance to earn cash. They want clothes, jewelry, cosmetics and other consumer goods."
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"They are told they can earn better money in foreign countries working as domestic helpers or waitresses," added Imjairath. "But when they arrive at their destinations, they are forced into prostitution." While de Vries believes van der Sloot could have been charged with conspiracy in the scam, Thai authorities did not arrest him — and he ultimately fled the country.
But for a man who's confessed to one brutal murder and
suspected of at least one other, Bangkok became the ultimate playground. "The Bangkok sex trade," said the law enforcement source, "would be a serial killer's idea of heaven on earth!"
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