June 22, 2001. Copyright 2001. Graphic News. All rights reserved.

FBI helped Peru track down fugitive Montesinos

LONDON, June 22, Graphic News: Latin AmericaÕs most wanted man, former Peruvian intelligence chief Vladimiro Lenin Montesinos, has been arrested after a desperate eight months on the run.

The mysterious 56-year-old spymaster --who was the right-hand man of disgraced ex-President Alberto Fujimori -- sparked a mammoth corruption scandal last year that toppled Fujimori and rocked PeruÕs political establishment.

With a US$5 million price on his head, Montesinos was arrested in Venezuela, at a safe house in a Caracas slum, on Saturday night and expelled to face trial at home.

He faces charges ranging from embezzlement of state funds to illicit arms and drugs deals and running death squads. Justice Minister Diego Garcia Sayan says Montesinos could face life imprisonment if convicted of money laundering and murder.

The capture in VenezuelaÕs capital resulted from a joint international manhunt involving Peruvian police and the FBI, whose agents last week obtained a key lead from a Montesinos ally in Miami, according to Jose Carlos Ugaz, the Peruvian special prosecutor overseeing 140 investigations of the former spy chief.

ÒThis capture was an operation that to a large extent was made possible by the FBI,Ó Ugaz told reporters. 

ÒInformation obtained from a person connected with Montesinos in Miami was a fundamental clue that ended in the capture. We had been sure for months that Montesinos was in Venezuela and that he was being protected by people with ties to the government. We were able to confirm those hypotheses.Ó

MontesinosÕ apprehension came after dozens of arrests in Peru of top military commanders, politicians and media executives believed to have illicit ties to the former spymaster.

Peruvian police Colonel Manuel Aybar Marca was arrested in February. He is accused of helping engineer MontesinosÕ escape from Peru after a video of the spy chief bribing a congressman plunged Fujimori into crisis last October.

Also in February, another Montesinos associate, Peruvian arms dealer Victor Venero Garrido, agreed to return to Peru to face charges of embezzling $100 million in public pension funds rather than fight extradition from Miami.

Montesinos escaped Lima on a yacht and made his way to Venezuela via the Galapagos Islands, Costa Rica and Aruba, according to Peruvian authorities.
In December, Montesinos eluded Peruvian police who had rushed to a Caracas clinic where he was believed to have undergone plastic surgery to change his appearance.

Dogged detective work tightened a noose around the fugitive recently as U.S. and Peruvian police arrested accomplices in Miami, Buenos Aires and other cities and discovered a fortune of more than $260 million in banks around the world.

On Sunday, Peruvian Interior Minister and veteran terrorist hunter Antonio Ketin Vidal told reporters that Venezuelan, Peruvian and U.S. agents had been on the fugitiveÕs heels for days.

ÒNow it can be said that several days ago a secret operation was begun,Ó Ketin said. He added that MontesinosÕ alleged international array of underworld connections Ð Colombian drug lords and guerrillas, Russian and Israeli arms traffickers, intelligence services around the hemisphere Ð made him Ònot just a dangerous man for Peru, he had become a dangerous man for the world.Ó

The arrest could mean more trouble for Fujimori, who fled to Japan in November to avoid prosecution in Peru. Japan has said it will not extradite Fujimori because he holds Japanese citizenship.
/ENDS

Sources: Associated Press, Reuters