FORMER SPY CHIEF RETURNED TO PERU AFTER BEING CAPTURED

BUENOS AIRES, June 25 - Vladimiro Montesinos, the former Peruvian spy
chief and longtime C.I.A. agent wanted on charges of gun running,
money laundering and collaborating with drug traffickers, was
returned to the Peruvian capital today after being captured in
Venezuela on Saturday night with crucial help from the F.B.I.

A Peruvian National Police plane that left Caracas early this morning
touched down in Lima after a brief refueling stop in a jungle border
city, and Mr. Montesinos was whisked to a waiting helicopter.

The helicopter took off after a few minutes but it was not
immediately clear where he would be taken - to a high-security prison
or to the maximum-security naval prison in Lima's port of Callao.

Justice Minister Diego Carcia Sayan said a decision would be made
based on concerns for the safety of Mr. Montesinos.

Mr. Montesinos, who was the principal aide to the ousted Peruvian
president, Alberto K. Fujimori, was seized by Venezuelan military
intelligence officers in a hideout in Caracas and held at a local
military headquarters there. It marked the end of an eight-month
international manhunt.

President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela announced the seizure Sunday
during a meeting of Andean region leaders and said he had told his
interior minister to speed legal proceedings to send him back to Peru
to stand trial.

Mr. Chavez, long considered a secret ally of Mr. Montesinos, came
under pressure from Peru to make the arrest. He long insisted,
despite mounting evidence, that Mr. Montesinos was not under
protection in Venezuela. He vowed on Sunday that the 56-year-old spy
would be sent back "more quickly than immediately."

"Last night, fortunately, and I thank God for it, we captured
Vladimiro Montesinos alive," President Chavez said. He refused to
give details of the capture.

Witnesses reported having seen Mr. Montesinos in Venezuela in
December seeking plastic surgery. There were persistent reports that
he was hiding out at a ranch owned by a Venezuelan tycoon associated
with the Venezuelan interior minister in the province of Barinas,
protected by 100 guards. Mr. Montesinos had a $5 million bounty on
his head.

A Bush administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity,
said the F.B.I. had played a crucial role in the capture.

Investigating Mr. Montesinos's money-laundering trail, the F.B.I.
arrested three people in Miami on Saturday, including a Venezuelan
who said he knew where Mr. Montesinos was hiding, the official said.
Senior Peruvian officials were immediately notified, and Peru then
demanded that Venezuela take action.

The two other people were later released.

United States officials said that given the overwhelming new evidence
of Mr. Montesinos's whereabouts, Mr. Chavez had no choice but to
order the arrest.

"We're extremely pleased that Vladimiro Montesinos has finally been
caught," said a statement issued by the American Embassy in Lima.
"The longstanding U.S.-Peruvian cooperation in the hunt for
Montesinos bore fruit over the last few weeks, generating leads which
led to the detention of Montesinos."

The statement said United States support over the course of the
manhunt had "played a vital role in Montesinos's capture."

The Peruvian interior minister, Antonio Ketin Vidal, agreed that the
F.B.I. had played an important role in the capture, though Mr. Chavez
credited his own intelligence agency for spotting the fugitive.

Mr. Chavez told reporters Sunday that "certain people" in Venezuela
had been hiding the fugitive. Mr. Chavez said he had never seen Mr.
Montesinos in person.

Nevertheless, the Venezuelan leader added, "There's bound to be
someone who's going to say, `You see, Chavez did have him all along.'"

For months Peruvian authorities have asked that Washington make every
effort to find Mr. Montesinos, arguing that the United States had a
moral obligation to pursue him.

As a young junior army officer, Mr. Montesinos first helped the
C.I.A. in the 1970's by passing the agency documents disclosing
Soviet arms purchases by the leftist military government that ruled
Peru at the time. He was cashiered and jailed for a year for
sabotage, and he became a defense lawyer for drug trafficking
suspects after he was freed.

Mr. Montesinos eventually became Mr. Fujimori's personal lawyer,
handling a potentially embarrassing tax problem for him during his
first presidential election campaign, in 1990, and later his divorce.

On taking office, Mr. Fujimori made Mr. Montesinos his spy chief. The
C.I.A. set up an anti-drug force within the National Intelligence
Service under Mr. Montesinos's command in the early 1990's.

Mr. Montesinos was credited with coordinating an anti-drug campaign
that decreased coca cultivation in Peru by more than half, but he was
accused of taking bribes from a number of traffickers.

He used his closeness to American intelligence as an asset in
garnering increasing power in Peru, although he was a contentious
figure within the Clinton administration. There were repeated debates
in the United States government over whether to break off ties with
him.

The Clinton administration finally distanced itself from Mr.
Montesinos early last year when evidence mounted that he was working
to fix the 2000 presidential election and that he was involved in
trafficking arms to Colombian guerrillas while the United States was
planning an anti-drug plan for Colombia.

Peru's public prosecutor charged Mr. Montesinos last week with
amassing a fortune of some $265 million during Mr. Fujimori's decade
in power. Mr. Fujimori resigned and fled to Japan last November,
escaping looming corruption charges.

Mr. Montesinos has been linked to death squad activities, taking
protection money from drug traffickers, running guns to Marxist
guerrillas in Colombia and committing electoral fraud to ensure the
re-election of Mr. Fujimori to a third term last year, according to
prosecutors and Peruvian congressional investigators. He was also
linked to purchases of faulty military equipment in return for
kickbacks.

Peruvian prosecutors said they would seek a sentence of life in
prison for the former spy chief, but they have hinted that they may
be more lenient if he agrees to cooperate in other investigations.

Hundreds of videotapes already captured from Mr. Montesinos after his
flight have shown him giving bribes and conspiring with congressmen,
business executives, army generals, election officials, mayors and
owners of television stations. It is likely that he could offer
information on scores of officials and others who remain in powerful
positions.

Born into a family of Marxist labor organizers, Mr. Montesinos was
given Lenin's first name, Vladimir. Former associates said Mr.
Montesinos had a taste for diamond-crusted watches, double-breasted
suits, military history books and Bach. He had several houses and
apartments, including one in Argentina and a beachside mansion
outside Lima with a secret tunnel leading from his bath.

Peru's interim president, Valentin Paniagua, expressed satisfaction
at the news of the capture, calling Mr. Montesinos the "the
mastermind of the worst-ever web of corruption in Peru." He sent
Interior Minister Vidal to Caracas to escort Mr. Montesinos back to
Lima.

"This is an encouraging development, and it makes possible the
ultimate success of the fight for the moralization of Peru," Mr.
Paniagua said from the Peruvian city of Arequipa, where he was
overseeing a rescue effort after a powerful earthquake that struck
southern Peru on Saturday afternoon, killing at least 50 people and
leaving thousands homeless.

Peru's prime minister, Javier Perez de Cuellar, was in Venezuela for
the meeting of Andean leaders in the city of Valencia and is expected
to remain in the country to monitor the extradition process.

President-elect Alejandro Toledo, who met with Mr. Chavez on Thursday
in Lima, said he hoped that the capture of Mr. Montesinos would
accelerate the extradition of former President Fujimori, who is
living in an apartment in Japan and has Japanese as well as Peruvian
citizenship.

"This is good news for the men and women of Peru anxious for
justice," Mr. Toledo, who takes office on July 28, said in a radio
interview. "I'm not going to be party to a witch hunt or to
vendettas, but neither am I going to be party to impunity."

Mr. Chavez may have owed Mr. Montesinos and Mr. Fujimori a favor,
since Peru gave refuge to several Venezuelan officers allied with Mr.
Chavez in a failed coup attempt in 1992. After the tainted Peruvian
election last year, Mr. Chavez was one of the few Latin American
leaders who defended Mr. Fujimori.