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Joran van der Sloot's biggest mistake after murdering a young woman in Peru was heading south to escape to Chile.
He should have headed east to Brazil.
Had the 22-year-old Dutchman escaped to Brazil, which historically has not had strong extradition laws, it would have been a lot harder to turn him over to authorities in Peru.
Instead, when he was found in Chile just days after he killed Stephany Flores in a cheap Lima, Peru rooming house last week, Chilean authorities immediately and without fuss turned young van der Sloot over to law enforcement officials in bordering Peru.
Peruvian officials have subjected van der Sloot to instense questioning since, and he finally cracked on Tuesday, reportedly confessing to the murder.
According to media reports, poker pro wannabe van der Sloot said he murdered Flores, whom he picked up at a poker tournament in a Lima casino, because he got angry that she looked through his laptop computer and found articles about Natalee Holloway, whom van der Sloot is suspected of killing five years ago in Aruba.
Apparently van der Sloot, who was an honor student in high school in Aruba, didn't know anything about Brazil's notorious legal reputation--the country has long refused to turn over criminal suspects to other nations, even murder suspects.
A legal expert told Gambling911.com: "Brazil has no extradition treaty with many nations in the world. And even in cases where it does have an extradition treaty with a country, Brazil often will ignore it and refuse to extradite a suspect."
The expert continued: "That doesn't mean van der Sloot would've gotten away with murder--some will say again--had he fled to Brazil. But it would have been a lot more difficult to send him back to the country where the crime was committed. And if he got a good lawyer he might've been able to delay extradition indefinitely."
The most famous criminal ever to flee to Brazil to avoid extradition was Englishman Ronnie Biggs, who masterminded the so-called Great Train Robbery in England in 1963, robbing a mail train of $7.3 million in cash.
Biggs was caught and jailed in England, but escaped from prison in 1965 and made it to Brazil.
British authorities for years tried and failed to get him extradited back to England--he lived openly in Rio de Janeiro as a sort of minor celebrity.
Finally, after suffering a stroke, fearing death and desiring to die in his native England, Biggs in 2001 voluntarily returned to England and turned himself in to British authorities, who promptly threw him back in prison.
He was released in 2009 because of failing health and is still alive at age 81, living in England.
By Tom Somach
Gambling911.com Staff Writer
