PERU'S MOST WANTED IS SEIZED

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.

Peruvian Interior Minister Antonio Ketin Vidal, speaking from Caracas'
international airport, said a military plane was on its way to pick up
Montesinos and take him back to Peru. The former spy chief should
arrive in Lima at 7 or 8 a.m. today local time, Vidal said.

Heavy security ringed the military terminal where Montesinos was being
held. Vidal said Montesinos was in good health and apparently hadn't
undergone plastic surgery to disguise himself, as was widely reported.

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.

"Fortunately, we have captured Vladimiro Montesinos alive," Chavez
said.

At home, Montesinos, 55, faces charges ranging from money laundering
to corruption to directing death squads.

Peruvian investigators say the ex-spy chief and his cronies in the
military amassed a fortune from arms dealing and drug trafficking.
Investigators have detailed what they say is a huge criminal network
run by Montesinos by which he controlled politicians, courts, military
officials and businessmen through bribery and blackmail.

Montesinos' fall began in September when videos were broadcast that
appeared to show him bribing an opposition congressman to support the
government.

As the crisis grew, Montesinos fled to Panama. Refused asylum there,
he returned to Peru and went into hiding before again slipping out of
the country, fleeing to Costa Rica and then Aruba, about 20 miles off
northwestern Venezuela, according to statements by three Peruvian army
officers and Costa Rican officials.