BENAHAVÍS, Spain — Fugitives often hole up in remote locations. But when the fugitive is the powerful former chief of Mexico’s state oil company, not just any old hide-out will do.

Before his arrest this month, Emilio Lozoya, once the head of the Mexican oil giant Pemex, remained out of sight at La Zagaleta, one of the world’s most exclusive residential compounds. An estate of more than 2,000 plush acres, it includes two golf courses, and is nestled along Spain’s southern coast near Marbella.

Mr. Lozoya had been on the run since last May, trying to evade the Mexican authorities, who accuse him of fraud and bribery while he ran Pemex and who now want to see him extradited from Spain.

The former executive denies any wrongdoing. His choice of hideaway is no doubt a measure of the power he long wielded at the helm of a company whose tax payments have been funding one fifth’s of Mexico’s federal budget.