ROME ? A judge, politician, physician, lawyer and police official were among 10 suspects arrested Wednesday in a probe that Milan prosecutors said revealed the growing infiltration of the 'ndrangheta crime syndicate in broad sectors of Italian society.
Milan prosecutors said in a statement that the investigation was conducted jointly by anti-mafia authorities in Milan and Reggio Calabria, the southern region where the 'ndrangheta is rooted.
Last year, a major investigation that netted around 300 arrests showed that the 'ndrangheta wasn't just a southern association of crime clans, but rather a sophisticated organization that had infiltrated itself into politics and finance in Milan, Italy's business capital.
Among those arrested Wednesday was Giuseppe Giglio, a judge in the city of Reggio Calabria accused of corruption, revealing office secrets and aiding and abetting in circumstances aimed at helping mobsters, prosecutors said.
Another judge, Giancarlo Giusti, based in Palmi, an 'ndrangheta stronghold, is being investigated for suspected corruption in carrying out judicial duties, but was not among those arrested, the prosecutors said.
Charges on arrest warrants ranged from mafia association to using names of clean front-men on property documents, a key technique used by mobsters in money laundering. A top tax police official was arrested on suspicion of corruption.
The prosecutors laid out their suspicions in a 810-page document that quoted extensively from intercepted phone conversations and argued that the 'ndrangheta's influence in society extends far and deep beyond its rural Calabrian roots.
"No environment remains extraneous to this work of contamination," wrote the investigating magistrate Giuseppe Gennari in the document ordering the arrests.
In one of the conversations, one of those arrested for suspected mafia association, Giulio Lampada, boasts that his son was baptized in the Vatican and that he was nominated for membership in an honorary society by the Vatican's No. 2 official, Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.
It is possible to be married or have children baptized at the Vatican upon recommendation from a local pastor. A Vatican spokesman said he wasn't able to immediately comment on the boast by the alleged mobster that he was made a member of the honorary society, established in the 19th century to honor lay people doing good works for the church or Catholic charities.
Nomination for membership in various honorary societies pass through the secretary of state's office, but it wasn't immediately clear if the cardinal himself directly evaluates candidates.
In other intercepted conversations, suspects boasted that they had met with prominent Italian local or regional politicians.
One of those named, Lombardy Gov. Roberto Formigoni, called the assertions "a typical expression of a braggart." Formigoni said since he is well known, "anyone can say, 'but sure, I know him, I put my hand on his shoulder, I was at a dinner with him,'" the Italian news agency ANSA quoted the governor as saying.
"Those of us who campaign, doing 10 or 15 rallies a day, see thousands of people, but I rule out having had some relationship with this or that person," the governor was quoted as saying.
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