The 16-year-olds were located on Saturday in Albufeira after being reported missing last Tuesday.
They were found after a social media appeal was launched and Dutch police contacted their Portuguese counterparts with information on their whereabouts.
The girls were in the company of the Dutch-Moroccan national, for whom the Dutch prosecutor had issued a European Arrest Warrant seeking his extradition.
According to reports the girls were located by GNR officers near a hotel in Albufeira at around 4pm onSaturday afternoon in the company of the older man, who reportedly lives in Albufeira, and who was arrested by PJ police and taken to their Faro headquarters.
Media reports state the suspect claimed he only met the girls the night before and that he was the one who called the police, a claim Dutch police are said to have denied.
Dutch police spokesperson Mireille Aalders told regional public broadcasting station Omroep Brabant that the suspect would “be arraigned in Portugal, where he can decide whether he will be extradited voluntarily or whether he will fight the extradition in court.”
“He formally has the right to appeal against the Portuguese judge. It will take a while before he gets here,” Aalders said to the broadcaster.
Subsequently the 34-year-old suspect was released from police custody on Monday this week after being freed by Évora’s Appeals Court.
Media reports suggest the Netherlands’ extradition request did not meet European guidelines.
Sam Bruijs and Femke Lucas vanished from their hometown on Tuesday, 15 November, and are believed to have travelled from Bergen op Zoom to Eindhoven Airport, from where they flew to Spain.
They were reportedly spotted boarding a bus at Malaga Airport and were also later spotted in Marbella.
There is allegedly no evidence that the teenagers, who left behind their mobile phones and computers, left the Netherlands against their will. They will be questioned by the Dutch authorities upon their return.
During their five-day absence their fathers travelled to Spain then Portugal to look for them.
The teens have since returned to Holland and have been reunited with their families.