FORMER ARMY CHIEF ARRESTED

LIMA, Peru - The former head of Peru's armed forces during most of
ex-President Alberto Fujimori's 10-year autocratic rule has been
arrested for allegedly taking protection money from narcotics
traffickers, authorities said Friday.

Retired Gen. Nicolas Hermoza, Peru's armed forces commander from 1992
until 1998, was arrested at his home in an upscale Lima neighborhood
late Thursday and taken to San Jorge prison, a court spokesman said.

The spokesman said Hermoza was being held for "presumed protection of
narcotics trafficking."

The arrest comes after recent testimony from convicted drug kingpin
Demetrio Chavez, better known as "Vaticano," who said army officers he
paid off in the early 1990s told him that Hermoza received a share of
the money.

Hermoza has denied the allegations.

Chavez has also said that he paid Fujimori's fugitive ex-spy chief
Vladimiro Montesinos $50,000 a month for allowing him free use of an
airstrip in Peru's jungle-shrouded Huallaga Valley to ship
semi-refined cocaine to Colombia.