Prosecutors in the southern Italian city of Bari are investigating a young conservative MP with suspected links to local mafia. Elvira Savino, 33-year-old from the ruling conservative People of Freedom party, is among 129 people under investigation in an anti-mafia operation centred on Bari.
Police on Tuesday arrested at least 83 people and seized assets worth 220 million euros.
Prosecutors suspect Savino of involvement in money laundering for members of Bari's Parisi crime family, by allowing the clan to open a bogus bank account in her name.
In exchange, Savino received "numerous gifts and favours," according to prosecutors.
Savino has denied any wrongdoing and said she was prepared to resign if necessary to clear her name.
"I am prepared to resign from my parliamentary seat in order to make it clear that I have no ties to the mafia...it's all a misunderstanding," she told Italian daily Corriere della Sera in an interview published on Wednesday.
In the interview, Savino claimed the suspect bank account was her personal account and said that her brother had deposited a 3,000 euro cheque in the account.
"Those are hardly sums of money that indicate money-laundering ," she stated.
Savino allegedly helped launder cash from a company owned by mafia-linked local businessman Michele Labellarte, who was convicted of fraudulent bankruptcy. He died in September.
In one tapped telephone conversation between Labellarte and Savino, he reportedly told her: "Come on Elvira, don't be a gossip. Keep quiet!"
Savino told the newspaper that Labellarte was a "friend" and did not believe he had links to the mafia.
She admitted having met Gianpaolo Tarantini, the Bari-based businessman currently under investigation for procuring prostitutes - some of whom allegedly attended Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's parties - drug trafficking and corruption.
"I knew Tarantini, but I never attended any of the parties he organised," she said.
Lawyers, bank officials, a notary and public administration officials were among those arrested by anti-mafia investigators in Bari on Tuesday. Fifty-three are in prison and 30 were put under house arrest.
Prosecutors are investigating members of the Parisi clan for attempted homicide, extortion, auction rigging, international drug trafficking and money laundering in the Puglia region surrounding Bari.
The raids were carried out in conjunction with special investigators from Italy's tax police, the Guardia di Finanza, from Bari.
Piero Grasso, a national anti-Mafia prosecutor, said the operation "showed the true face of criminality" in the southern Puglia region.
Source: ADN KRONOS
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