VATICAN CITY (CNS) – After months of investigation, Vatican police arrested Msgr. Carlo Alberto Capella, former staff member at the Vatican nunciature in Washington, on charges related to the possession and distribution of child pornography.

The Vatican said Msgr. Capella was taken into custody by Vatican gendarmes at the request of Vatican City’s promoter of justice, who serves as chief prosecutor and directs criminal investigations. The accused is being detained in a cell in the barracks of the gendarmerie corps.

The arrest, the statement said, was made on the charge of being a criminal who “distributes, disseminates, transmits, imports, exports, offers or sells child pornography through any means, even electronically, as well as whoever possesses child pornography for those purposes or otherwise distributes or disseminates knowledge of information directed at grooming or exploiting minors for sexual purposes.”

The violation carries a prison sentence of one year to five years and a fine.