Vatican cleric in cash smuggling scandal

A senior Catholic cleric arrested in a plot to smuggle millions of euro into Italy controlled vast amounts of money and felt he could act with impunity because of his connections to the Vatican bank, claims a judge’s investigative document.

In the latest blow to the Vatican’s image, Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, 61, was arrested on Friday along with an Italian secret service agent and a financial broker.

The three had plotted to smuggle €20 million into Italy from Switzerland for members of a family of shipowners in southern Italy, an investigating magistrate told reporters.