I have wondered and wondered the same thing. Croes seems to be the first eyes and ears on the ground in Aruba, the guy the Twitty's first met up with, was driving around with some unnamed kid and was the first (I think) to identify Joran with a physical description of him and the car. He's a mystery to me.
I also thought he was first contacted because the call originated from one of his phones. Why would they call him about a message in the US?
a long shot, but possibly its the grain of truth in a lie....to get on board at ground zero. I know that he and Beth listened to "a" message "3 times", but is it in fact the call he referenced as being from his "major" friend? Was he really chasing a call that was noticed to have gone out, rather than one that was incoming to the US?