Italian police arrest church official in anti-piracy swoop

 

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By Simon Aughton

Posted on 20 Apr 2007 at 10:02

Italian police have arrested a sacristan working at Naples' main cathedral, the Duomo di Napoli. Together with his son, he is accused of working with a criminal organisation that downloaded music and movie pre-releases from the Internet.

In total 11 members of the gang were arrested by the Rome Fiscal Police (GdF) acting on warrants issued by the Public Prosecutor of Naples.

The police also seized 143 burners, 14,000 pirate CDs and DVDs, 222,000 jewel boxes and 40,000 inlay cards.

A sacristan is an official of the Catholic Church responsible for the sacristy, which is a room in the church where the vestments, church furnishings, sacred vessels and other treasures are kept.