Italian mobsters might not be the only ones smuggling money into Italy. In a shocking new story, reports are coming in alleging that a senior official at the Vatican in Rome is guilty of smuggling roughly $26 million into the country illegally.

The cleric, Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, was an accountant in the Vatican's finance office, the Institute for Religious Works (IOR in Italian), more commonly referred to as the Vatican Bank. Scarano was already suspended pending an investigation into claims that he was laundering money.

"As has been made known in the past few days, Msgr. Nunzio Scarano was suspended from his position at the APSA over a month ago, as soon as his superiors were informed that he was under investigation. This is in compliance of the Regulations of the Roman Curia, which require the precautionary suspension of persons against whom prosecution has been initiated." said Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., director of the Holy See Press Office.

Now, Italian authorities have arrested the Vatican official, claiming that he was guilty of both slander and corruption. They allege that he smuggled roughly 20 million euros into the country from Switzerland aboard a government plane. The charges are stunning blow to a bank that has long been shrouded in secrecy.

"[The Vatican Bank] must become an accepted member of the international financial system," the bank's new chief executive, Ernst von Freyberg, recently told Vatican reporters. "My role is to improve our reputation, so that the Church is no longer darkened by bad news from us. ... We have to be clean on all legal fronts."

From the beginning of his time as the pope of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis has worked to snuff out corruption among his ranks. Immediately after being elected to lead the Vatican, Francis expressed his desire to create a pontifical commission to work in conjunction with the Vatican Financial Information Authority to investigate the inner workings of the IOR. 

"The appointment of the commission," explained an unnamed Vatican official, "is in order to understand if the Institute for Religious Works fulfills the mission of the Church in its current structure or if it needs to be reformed."

The Vatican claims it has already caught seven attempts at money laundering this year alone, as compared to six all of last year. Scarano is now being held in Queen of Heaven jail. A financier and a member of the military police have also been arrested in the case.