(CNN) -- Joran van der Sloot faces an arrest warrant on charges of extortion and wire fraud in Alabama, U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance said Thursday.
The charges are unrelated to van der Sloot's status as a suspect in the killing of a Peruvian woman.
The complaint alleges that van der Sloot tried to extort $250,000 from an individual in exchange for the location of the remains of Alabama teen Natalee Holloway and the circumstances surrounding her death, Vance said.
Van der Sloot was once the main suspect in Holloway's disappearance in Aruba in 2005.
The announcement of the arrest warrant came on the same day that the Dutch citizen was apprehended in Chile in the killing of 21-year-old Stephany Flores Ramirez in Peru.
Vance called the timing "strangely a coincidence."
The Alabama investigation had been going on for about six weeks, she said.
The arrest warrant will go through the Interpol system in an effort to lead to van der Sloot's prosecution in the United States, Vance said.
By the CNN Wire Staff
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