Aruban police have arrested Patrick van der Eem in a hotel in Oranjestad. Van der Eem gained notoriety when he befriended Joran van der Sloot, the chief suspect in the Natalee Holloway case, and secretly recorded him boasting about his role in Ms Holloway's disappearance.

Van de Eem was working for Dutch crime reporter Peter R de Vries and the tapes were broadcast on Dutch and US television. The programme won Mr de Vries an Emmy award. Van der Eem's participation in the programme was controversial as he has a number of convictions.
 

Police arrested him after he allegedly stayed in the Radidsson hotel without paying and threatened hotel personnel. Police say he had cocaine on his person at the time of his arrest and he had also stayed at three other expensive hotels in Aruba and left without paying.

Natalee vanished on the Caribbean island of Aruba - part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands - on 30 May 2005. Joran van der Sloot has been arrested twice in connection with her disappearance, but without conclusive evidence he has never been brought to trial.