Holloway tapes: Van der Eem used cocaine

Patrick van der Eem, the man who got Joran van der Sloot to confess to being with American teenager Natalie Holloway when she died, was heavily under the influence of cocaine while making the secret recordings, the Volkskrant reports on Tuesday.


In a long interview to mark the publication of his book Overboard, Van der Eem talks of his cocaine addiction, his feelings towards Van der Sloot and tv presenter Peter R de Vries, and the money he has earned from the confession.
Van der Eem, a convicted drugs dealer, worked with De Vries on a tv show about the girl’s disappearance on the holiday island of Aruba in 2005. Van der Eem made several car journeys with Van der Sloot in which he talked about how Natalee died and how her body was dumped at sea.
He told the paper he took cocaine to remove any doubts Van der Sloot had about him. ‘Joran sensed something… so I began to take it in front of him every day.’ Van der Eem said he took between two and three grammes of cocaine a day for a seven-month period.
Van der Sloot also took cocaine with him but not during the car journeys shown on the tv programme, Van der Eem said. However, the tv clips do show Van der Sloot smoking marijuana.
He also admits to the paper that his ego played a role in unmasking Van der Sloot. ´When you can do something which others can’t, the FBI, the CIA, the police… Everyone was looking and Patrick finds. Then you feel yourself to be a tough guy.’
US tv station ABC paid $830,000 to broadcast the show, Van der Eem said.
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