(10 Nov 2000) Spanish/Nat
XFA
Peru's President Alberto Fujimori said that Vladimiro Montesinos, his fugitive ex-spy chief remains on the run and new evidence shows he has U-S 10 (M) million dollars in foreign accounts in addition to allegedly illicit funds discovered earlier.
Fujimori's announcement on Thursday came one week after Switzerland said it had frozen more than U-S 48 (M) million dollars in five bank accounts linked to Montesinos on suspicion of illicit money laundering.
The president launched a nationwide manhunt for Montesinos two weeks ago, after his former intelligence adviser returned from a failed asylum bid in Panama to go into hiding in Peru.
He denied rumours he had ordered Montesinos to be brought in dead or alive.
Fujimori displayed seven watches and two heavy gold chains that he said had been seized during a pre-dawn search Tuesday of the luxury apartment where Montesinos' wife and two daughters live.
He said the jewelry was worth about a million U-S dollars.
He added that during a search of another house that night, bank statements were found indicating the existence of a U-S 5.3 (M) million dollar account linked to Montesinos in Banco Bilboa Vizcaya in the Cayman Islands.
It was not clear who owned the house.
Investigators also discovered evidence of accounts in the Bank of New York and Banco Sudameris in the Uruguayan capital, Montevideo, bringing the total to about U-S 10 (M) million dollars, Fujimori said.
He also said he discussed the New York account with U-S Ambassador John Hamilton at the Government Palace on Wednesday night.
A U-S Embassy spokesman confirmed that Hamilton met with Fujimori, but declined to say what the meeting was about.
An arrest order for Montesinos was issued in Peru on Monday .
He faces criminal complaints including corruption, laundering narcotics profits, influence peddling, torture, murder, illicit enrichment and tax fraud, said Jose Ugaz, a special investigator appointed by Fujimori.
The president claims 2-thousand soldiers lead by a policeman, an army commander and a Naval officer, have been sent to patrol the Peru/Bolivia border to stop Montesinos from escaping.
The skies are also being patrolled in Puerto Maldonado and in La Joya - towns near Bolivia - to prevent him leaving in a small aircraft.
Montesinos is suspected of building up a personal fortune through a network of judges and lawyers who extorted money on his behalf to fix trials.
He also has been implicated in an illegal arms pipeline to leftist guerrillas in Colombia.
Meanwhile, the president of the Peruvian Congress, Martha Hildebrandt, has suspended the legislature after the opposition presented a censure motion against her.
It accused Hildebrandt of not consulting the opposition on the formation of a commission to investigate Montesinos.
SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"We have a border controls along the Bolivian border, made up of men of the national police, marines and the army, a total of two thousand men. There is strict control in the frontier, with helicopters. There are two air control centres, one in Maldonado with a radar and two planes and another in La Joya with a radar and three planes."
SUPER CAPTION: Alberto Fujimori, Peruvian President
SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"I'm interested in locating and capturing him (Montesinos), interrogating him and seeing how to recover those funds illegally obtained through money laundering abroad."
SUPER CAPTION: Alberto Fujimori, Peruvian President
SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
SUPER CAPTION: Alberto Fujimori, Peruvian President
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