Priest in erotic chat with man blackmailed

ROME–Italian police dressed as priests have ensnared two would-be blackmailers who were threatening to publish wiretaps of an erotic conversation with a clergyman, local media said Sunday.

Police in the Lombardy region of northern Italy donned priestly garb late Saturday to trap two Romanian men in the town of Lomellina who were trying to get the local church to pay them 250,000 euros ($340,000) so as not to hand the tape over to the media.

The recording allegedly captures an unnamed local priest having an erotic conversation with one of the two men, the reports said.