Looking at Peru Spy Chief's 'James Bond' Home

Nov. 28, 2000 -- For a peek into the clandestine world ofPeru’s fugitive ex-spy chief, Vladimiro Montesinos, one need go nofarther than the secret tunnel leading to an escape hatch under hispink bathtub.

Peru’s Panamericana Television has broadcast images of the spymaster’s luxury beach house, hidden behind high windowless walls topped with electrified wires in a resort town just south of Lima.

The home, raided earlier this month by police searching forMontesinos, was amply equipped with escape routes.

One lay under the bathtub, which when lifted reveals a tunnelleading to a secret hatch under a plant bed located in the garageof a neighboring house. Another secret hatch leading to theunderground tunnel was discovered by the indoor pool.

Such personal touches hinted at the life of a man who built up acovert network of power while allegedly bribing politicians,directing death squads and torture and laundering money from drugtrafficking and arms deals.

The dusty treeless streets outside Montesinos’ beach housebelied an opulent setting, replete with wood panel doors reinforcedwith armor plating, a portable satellite phone in the masterbedroom, and hidden cameras in the guest suites and inside a stereospeaker by the indoor pool.

Montesinos remains missing since his return last month from afailed asylum bid in Panama. Former President Alberto Fujimoripersonally led a spectacular — many say staged — manhunt for hisonce-closest aide.

That was before his 10-year authoritarian rulecrumbled under the weight of scandals over Montesinos.

The house was a huge contrast to the regular houses of one of South America’s poorest nations. The government said Montesinos officially earned $370 a month.

Deadly, But Gaudy

Police raided the house this month as part of a hunt for the spy chief wanted on charges ranging from money-laundering to running death squads.

But the James Bond-style beach house was not to everybody’s taste — plastic curtains and fake fireplaces vied for attention with beige bedboards, velvet and beige sofas and wallpaper decorated with gold linings and flowers.

Life-size photos of his young female secretary — posing as if trying to win a beauty contest — adorned his bathroom, bedroom and his personal gym.

Loudspeakers by the indoor pool had secret cameras inside the cones, which Panamericana Television said were to film guests. Montesinos is reported to have more than 2,000 videos linking politicians and businessmen to his activities.

Before going into hiding, Montesinos reportedly made copies of the recordings that presumably incriminate politicians, military leaders and businessmen.

In his own personal video collection, however, he kept the story of the notorious gangster couple, Bonnie and Clyde, and the Roman epic Ben Hur.

Retired police Gen. Maximo Rivera said the house demonstrated “an abnormal personality” of a man “conscious that he was living outside of the law.”

Scant Signs of the Wanted Man

For years Montesinos was almost a myth in Peru. He hardly ever appeared in public and his name became synonymous with the notorious intelligence services, known as SIN, which he ran for most of Fujimori’s decade in power.

After Fujimori fired Montesinos in September over allegations he bribed a lawmaker, Peruvians suddenly had access to the spy chief’s life — including a visit to theheadquarters of the spy agency accused of torturing opponents and wiretapping political rivals.

Congress ousted Fujimori from office last week, declaring himmorally unfit for the presidency and ignoring the resignation he offered from self-imposed exile in Japan.

Investigators in October found underground cells — suspected torture dungeons — under Montesinos’s offices.

After a monthlong search, police have only discovered small traces of Peru’s most wanted man, such as 1,500 Christian Dior shirts and $1 million in jewelry — including diamond-encrusted watches — at his wife’s house in a fashionable Lima neighborhood.

Montesinos’ Spreading Web

The television images also helped confirm that Montesinos, who had his own “Jupiter” battalion of elite troops to protect him while he was Fujimori’s aide, was prepared to invest in his own security.

Allegations followed that he had stashed more than $58 million in bank accounts in Switzerland, New York, Uruguay, Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands.

Swiss authorities said today that the accounts linked to Montesinos came from commissions on arms deals between Peru and Russia. The accounts are frozen.

In a statement from the Zurich district attorney’s office, officials also said they had found — and frozen — accounts with another $22 million from the arms deals. They did not explicitly link the funds to Montesinos, but to the deals.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.