Vatican car seized with cocaine,
cannabis
September 16, 2014
Pope Francis has visited Jorge Mejia in hospital as
news of the drugs find broke. Photo:
The Vatican has been left red-faced after it emerged
that a car bearing its diplomatic plates had been stopped in France with four
kilograms of cocaine on board.
The car - which also contained 200g of cannabis -
belonged to 91-year-old Argentinian cardinal Jorge Mejia, emeritus librarian at
the Holy See, who retired in 2003 and who is currently bedridden.
Pope Francis, a fellow Argentinian, visited Mejia, who
was confined to a hospital in Rome after a heart attack, just two days after
being elected.
French radio reported that the cardinal's private
secretary entrusted the vehicle to two Italian men to take it for its annual
check-up.
The two men promptly drove to Spain to buy the drugs,
thinking that they would be protected by the diplomatic plates, according to
RTL radio - a scenario not yet confirmed by legal sources.
The pair were picked up on Sunday at a toll station
near Chambery in the French Alps on their way back.
Neither of the men has a Vatican diplomatic passport
so the Vatican is not directly implicated, French legal sources say.
The Vatican confirmed that the car had been stopped in
France with the drugs on board but stressed that no staff were involved in the
incident.
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