SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) -- The yacht of Peru's fugitive ex-spy chief
                  Vladimiro Montesinos stopped for a few days at a remote Costa Rican island,
                  officials said Friday.

                  The information backs up testimony by three Peruvian army officers, who said
                  Montesinos fled his country in a yacht on Oct. 29 and was last seen three weeks
                  ago on a sailboat off Costa Rica, with Venezuela as his apparent destination.

                  Montesinos, a security adviser to ousted Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, is
                  wanted on charges from money laundering and influence peddling to directing
                  death squads.

                  A videotape of Montesinos apparently bribing a congressman led to the scandal
                  that toppled Fujimori, who is now in Japan.

                  Costa Rican Environment Minister Luis Rojas said officials have confirmed that
                  Montesinos' yacht, called the "Karisma," was docked Nov. 12-19 on the remote,
                  uninhabited island of Coco.

                  Foreign Minister Roberto Rojas said Montesinos and his crew made no contact
                  with local authorities. On Thursday, Security Minister Rogelio Ramos ordered
                  officials to check Costa Rica's Pacific coast ports.

                  Rojas said that if Montesinos was found in Costa Rica, he would be sent back to
                  Peru.

                  "If Montesinos has arrived in the country, we will have to see if there is an
                  extradition order pending and he will be extradited," Rojas said. "If there isn't (an
                  extradition order) and he entered illegally, he will be expelled."

                  Montesinos' whereabouts have been unknown since he returned to Peru in late
                  October after a failed asylum bid in Panama.

                  On Wednesday, however, Peruvian Congresswoman Anel Townsend, a member
                  of a congressional committee investigating Montesinos, broadcast a videotaped
                  statement of Peruvian army Maj. Alejandro Montes, Capt. Javier Perez and
                  technician Manuel Tullume.

                  In the tape, the three said they sailed with Montesinos to Ecuador's Galapagos
                  Islands and to Costa Rica's Coco Island. From there, Montesinos used a satellite
                  phone to contact a Venezuelan friend to send a sailboat, according to their
                  account. Montes said he saw Montesinos leave on the other boat.

                  James Tracy, manager of the travel agency Oqueanos, said he arranged for two
                  Peruvians to travel from Coco Island to the port of Puntarenas on Nov. 24. On
                  the boat, Tracy said, the two men rented satellite phones and made $1,000 worth
                  of calls to Costa Rica and Peru.

                  Copyright 2000 The Associated Press.