Neither he nor Montesinos has yet been charged with a U.S. crime. Montesinos allegedly had agreed to give safe passage to Escobar's drug-laden planes at Peru airstrips. But Citibank, a unit of financial services firm Citigroup Inc. and other banks with Venero-Garrido's money gradually noticed unusual activity in the accounts and alerted the authorities, law enforcement officials said. Yet, it was a matter of public information that Venero controlled Peru's police and military pension funds, and that he was closely allied with Montesinos. In a 1997 deal, the condo was transferred to Vialve Company Ltd., a corporation registered in the Cayman Islands.
Records list Venero as the company director.
A year later, the house was transferred to the same company. No money was involved in either transaction, real estate documents show. In fact, on a July 2000 visit to the United States, he stayed in Room 1076 at the Fontainebleau Hotel, a Miami Beach Police report said. Officers showed up at his room after someone reported screams. The charges were dropped.