An Italian senator who made national headlines by deserting outgoing Premier Romano Prodi's fragile coalition within months of its election was reported on Wednesday to be under investigation for allegedly helping a mafia clan in its bid to buy a military barracks in southern Italy.
Several newspapers carried reports that Senate Defence Committee chief Sergio De Gregorio was being probed for allegedly helping a clan belonging to the Calabrian mafia or 'Ndrangheta which had set its sights on the Mezzacapo barracks in the southern port of Reggio Calabria.
De Gregorio was elected to the Senate with the Italy of Values party, a Prodi ally, but soon deserted to join Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right opposition, creating his own party in the process - the Italians in the World movement.
The switch was bad news for Prodi, whose coalition was already hanging by a thread in the Senate after winning the narrowest of victories against Berlusconi in the 2006 election.
According to the papers, De Gregorio was contacted by the Ficaro clan which wanted him to facilitate its purchase of the barracks, a valuable two-storey building covering almost 4,000 square metres.
The senator was filmed at a spring 2007 dinner party attended by other politicians and businessmen close to the Ficaro clan and his conversations secretly taped, the papers said.
Reggio Calabria prosecutors leading the probe refused to comment on the reports.
De Gregorio is a Neapolitan journalist and businessman whose political past includes a stint with Berlusconi's Forza Italia party.
He is standing in this weekend's general election in alliance with Berlusconi's People of Freedom (PDL) party.
