Vatican: World's smallest state signs treaties to fight terror, drugs, mafia

Vatican City, 26 Jan. (AKI) - The Vatican has become a signatory to three international treaties designed to combat terrorism, drugs and organised crime.

The Holy See - the name of the Vatican's internationally recognized political entity - on Wednesday ratified the 1999 International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, the 2000 United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organised Crime, and the 1988 United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances.

"The Holy Father reminds us that terrorism and organised crime threaten the dignity of human beings and the common good in every country in the world," said Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for Relations with States.

The adoption of the accords "constitutes a further refinement of the legal structure of Vatican City State, which had already developed in this direction through the adoption of various laws concerning the prevention and combating of the laundering of money derived from criminal activity and the financing of terrorism," said the Vatican, the world's smallest sovereign state.

The Vatican in December 2010 established a financial watchdog to oversee. The agency's establishment came one year after Rome prosecutors launched a probe into suspected money laundering at the Vatican bank.

The Vatican bank is no stranger to controversy. It owned a small part of the Banco Ambrosiano and was held partially responsible for the 1.3 billion dollars in bad debts that it left when the bank collapsed.

A Rome court in 2007 said the Italian mafia was behind the 1982 death of former Banco Ambrosiano president Roberto Calvi, who was known as 'God's banker' because of the illicit financial dealings he handled that connected him to the Vatican bank.