Rome ( CNN ) -- A Vatican official , a financial broker and a former secret service police officer were arrested Friday on suspicion of corruption over an alleged attempt to smuggle a huge sum of cash into Italy , Rome 's prosecutor said . The official , Monsignor Nunzio Scarano , works as a financial analyst in the Vatican office that administers Vatican-owned property . The archdiocese of Salerno , in southern Italy , issued a statement saying media reports identifying him as a bishop there were incorrect . Prosecutor Nello Rossi told reporters the three suspects could face corruption charges , with Scarano also facing a possible count of defamation . He stressed that the investigation is ongoing and that money laundering is not among the possible charges based on what investigators have uncovered so far . The suspects were identified as a result of a larger investigation into the Vatican bank , also known as the Institute for the Works of Religion , Rossi said , but Friday 's arrests are not directly linked to the bank . The alleged offenses took place while the suspects were `` attempting to illegally import from Switzerland large amounts of money in cash , to be considered the result of tax evasion , '' he said . The alleged attempt took place in July 2012 but it was never carried out in full , he said , as the money never left Switzerland and never reached Rome . Scarano and the two other suspects were trying at first to bring in â‚¬40 million ( $ 52.1 million ) in cash using a private plane , then the reduced sum of â‚¬20 million , he said . Scarano is suspected of being the intermediary between the broker and former secret service policeman and the people who wanted the cash , he said . The operation put in place to bring in the money was `` extremely sophisticated , '' he said , in part because of the secret service officer 's role in the plan . Investigators are looking at transactions from two accounts Scarano held at the Vatican bank , one a personal account and the other used for donations , he added . Vatican spokesman the Rev . Federico Lombardi said Scarano had been suspended from his work at the Vatican more than a month ago , as soon as his superiors had been informed that he was under investigation . The Vatican is ready and willing to cooperate with Italian authorities on the investigation when they get in touch , he said . Rossi has been investigating the Vatican bank 's role and relationship with Italian banks for some years . Papal commission . The arrests come in the same week that Pope Francis established a papal commission tasked with investigating the activities of the Vatican bank . The commission , made up of four clerics and a Harvard law professor , will report to the pope with its findings `` in view of possible reform , '' Lombardi said , according to Vatican Radio . The Vatican has been plagued by internal power struggles over its murky finances for decades . On Wednesday , a financial watchdog agency established in 2010 issued its first report on money laundering , in a move to improve financial transparency in the city-state . The document from the Financial Intelligence Authority shows six reports of `` suspicious activity '' in the past year , up from just one in 2011 . It says the Vatican 's prosecutors are investigating two of those reports for possible criminal activity . It would n't elaborate further . The Vatican bank is also working to improve transparency , announcing earlier this month that it will launch a website to publish an annual report of its activities . The bank serves thousands of Catholic charities , religious orders and dioceses around the world , in addition to roughly 500 people living in the tiny city-state . It has some 33,400 accounts and about $ 8 billion in assets . CNN 's Hada Messia reported from Rome and Laura Smith-Spark wrote from London . CNN 's Alanna Petroff contributed to this report .
NEW : Prosecutor : The alleged attempt to bring cash into Vatican was `` extremely sophisticated '' A Vatican official and 3 other people have been arrested , the prosecutor says . The two arrests are not directly linked to a probe into the Italy bank , he says . Pope Francis set up a papal commission 2011 to look at the bank 's activities .