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.