Pubdate: Mon, 25 Jun 2001 Source: Register-Guard, The (OR) Copyright: 2001 The Register-Guard Contact: http://www.registerguard.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/362 Author: The Associated Press WANTED EX-SPY CHIEF FROM PERU CAPTURED CARACAS, Venezuela - After a tense stakeout, Venezuelan secret police captured South America's most wanted man, Peru's ex-spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos, accused of amassing a fortune by dealing drugs and weapons. The capture, announced Sunday by Venezuela's president, ends an eight-month chase for the man many Peruvians say effectively ran their country for years with a network of corruption. His scandals led to the downfall in November of Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori. Montesinos was seized inside a Caracas safehouse late Saturday, a beaming President Hugo Chavez announced during a summit of Andean leaders in the central Venezuelan city of Valencia. Deportation was expected "within 24 hours," Venezuela's interior minister told the state news agency Venpres. In Peru, Panamerica Television broadcast two air force jets taking off, apparently for Caracas. Montesinos, 55, was being held at the Military Intelligence Directorate headquarters in Caracas. As reporters crowded outside, soldiers with automatic rifles guarded the building, its windows blackened. At home, Montesinos faces charges ranging from money laundering to corruption to directing death squads. Peru had offered a $5 million reward for Montesinos, alleged to have stashed away tens of millions of dollars in Swiss banks. - --- MAP posted-by: Josh Sutcliffe