Montesinos suspected of role in AK-47 shipment to guerrillas

 BY JUAN O. TAMAYO

 LIMA, Peru -- Months before Peruvian intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos
 became the central figure in a political controversy that has rocked the
 government, U.S. officials questioned Peruvian involvement in a clandestine
 shipment of arms to leftist guerrillas in neighboring Colombia.

 As a result, it now appears, President Alberto Fujimori's surprise decision to quit
 his post may have been driven in part by the increasing suspicion that
 Montesinos and his associates were involved in smuggling arms to a guerrilla
 movement that U.S. officials consider the biggest security threat in Latin America
.
 THE VIDEO

 Fujimori's announcement Saturday came two days after opponents made public a
 video of Montesinos paying a $15,000 bribe to a congressman earlier this year in
 order to bolster Fujimori's control of the legislative branch.

 Although the video became the spark that triggered the current crisis,
 Montesinos, mainstay of Fujimori's 10 years of iron-fisted rule and unofficial head
 of the National Intelligence Service (SIN), was already under fire in the local media
 for alleged links to the weapons scandal.

 U.S. intelligence officials had more quietly traced some of the weapons to a
 Peruvian purchase of 10,000 AK-47 assault rifles from Jordan and urged that the
 Montesinos-controlled spy agency investigate how the guns wound up in the
 hands of Colombian guerrillas.

 FURTHER DAMAGE

 The scandal began emerging when Fujimori and Montesinos, apparently trying to
 head off further damage, announced Aug. 21 that the intelligence service had
 broken up a ring that parachuted guns to the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of
 Colombia (FARC) in 1999.

 They told a news conference that the smugglers were two former Peruvian army
 lieutenants in their early 30s, José and Luis Aybar, a former army paratrooper and
 seven civilians, including two Frenchmen, a Russian and a Spaniard. The Aybars
 and four others are under arrest, while the rest are at large.

 The Aybars used fake documents in the name of a Peruvian army general to buy
 the 10,000 weapons for $500,000 from Jordan, which never checked on their
 credentials, Fujimori and Montesinos alleged.

 CARGO AIRPLANES

 Cargo airplanes picked up the guns in Amman in March, April and July, refueled
 in the Canary Islands and Guyana, and parachuted the loads over FARC territory
 in eastern Colombia before landing in Iquitos, Peru, they claimed.

 Their tale began unraveling almost as soon as the news conference was over.

 Jordanian Information Minister Taleb Rifai immediately declared the sale was
 made to the Peruvian armed forces, and said his government had even used an
 unidentified U.S. official as a witness to ensure its legitimacy.

 SUSPICIOUS PLANES

 Colombian police officials said they had been aware of the airdrops from early on
 and had in fact tipped Peru to suspicious planes flying from Amman to Iquitos in
 June and September. Peruvian officials replied they were carrying legitimate
 shipments for their military, the officials said.

 U.S. experts later traced 16 of the guns, captured from FARC rebels, to an East
 German-made lot sold to Jordan, then obtained Jordanian documents showing
 they had been sold to Peru's military in 1998, the officials said.

 THE WEAPONS

 U.S. intelligence officials then began asking their Peruvian counterparts how the
 guns ended up in Colombia. The answers they received failed to satisfy
 investigators, said a knowledgeable U.S. official.

 ``The less they said, the more we suspected high level involvement -- maybe a
 general, maybe someone close to or protected by Montesinos,'' said a second
 U.S. official involved in the inquiries.

 Other figures involved in the scandal began talking also, further undermining
 Montesinos and Fujimori.

 ``It's not the way the president said,'' Alberto Meza, a former army parachute
 technician, said in a statement from prison. He claimed he was told the
 shipments were part of a secret operation sanctioned by the military.

 José Aybar later released a statement also saying he believed the weapons
 shipments were government-approved, but giving no details.

 El Comercio, one of the nation's leading newspapers, reported that the Peruvian
 air force picked up the assault rifles in Amman and that the $500,000 for the deal
 was paid through a Peruvian Defense Ministry account.

 Still another detail tied the arrested brothers to high-level military officials: The
 Aybars turned out to be cousins of Manuel Aybar Marca, a police colonel who
 commands the SIN's main operational and security squadron and is considered a
 close Montesinos ally.

 The scandal has continued to grow with each passing day, although it has been
 overshadowed by the dramatic videotape of the bribery and Fujimori's subsequent
 decision to call new elections.

 Last week, Imediaperu.com reported that an army depot under the command of a
 general who graduated with Montesinos from the Peruvian military academy in
 1966 could not account for a truckload of hand grenades.