Italy: 'Mafia ' arrest requested for politician close to Berlusconi

Naples, 6 Dec. (AKI) - Prosecutors have requested the arrest of an Italian politician who together 57 other suspects was a targeted Tuesday in an anti-mafia round up that prompted police to seize 100 million euros in assets.

Nicola Consentino served as economy undersecretary in former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's conservative government for suspected organised.-crime ties.

The arrests were made in a crackdown on the powerful Casalesi Cammora mafia clan regarding its infiltration into the town of Casal di Principe, a mafia stronghold near Naples. The seized assets belonged to the 57 people arrested in the anti-mob operation.

Consentino resigned from his undersecretary post in July but is still a deputy in parliament meaning he cannot be arrested unless Parliament votes to lift his immunity.

In July he stepped down days before a no-confidence vote that followed allegations he was part of a secret masonic-like society aimed at networking and influencing the country's power establishment. Such organisations are illegal in Italy.

Costentino is accused of pressuring Italy's largest bank UniCredit to provide a line of credit to a company with alleged links to the the Camorra - as the homegrown mafia from the Naples area is called - to build a shopping centre. Prosecutors also say he is involved in voting fraud in 2007 and 2010 local elections.

Two years ago the Parliament rejected a request for Cosentino's arrest and in September 2010 politicians in a secret ballot voted in favour of forbidding prosecutors from using telephone taps of conversations between Consentino and businessmen suspected of having ties with organised criminals, according to the Il Sole24 Ore newspaper.

Berlusconi's government last month collapsed after he lost his majority in Parliament under the pressure of scandals and the economic crisis affecting Italy and other European countries.