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Now, however, a third case may yield the most decisive evidence to date of the Bulgarian connection. Four date of the Bulgarian connection. Four weeks ago, police in the northern Italian town of Trento cracked a drug-and arms-smuggling ring allegedly headed by Henri Arsan, a Syrian. Arsan's contacts, Lagorio told Parliament, definitely included Bulgarians, thereby offering possible proof that the ring represented a third tie between Bulgaria and subversion in Italy. Two days later, in an even more startling development, Trento Magistrate Carlo Palermo announced that Çelenk was being charged with complicity in the Trento ring. For the first time, the three separate trails leading from Italy to Bulgaria had met. Çelenk's testimony will be essential in proving the connection, but it may be impossible to obtain. He was, in the words of Bulgarian authorities, "under the control" of the police in Sofia. In Sofia, Çelenk said, "I have nothing to do with this odious crime. I am an honest businessman."
British intelligence officials remain skeptical about the Italian case, privately expressing doubts about the efficiency of Italy's secret service. West Germans note that any such Vatican operation would have been unusually sloppy, since the alleged agents would have been left in Rome for more than a year after the crime. Says a government spokesman: "It's just too unprofessional for the KGB." Some Italians think their government went too far. The ruling Christian Democratic Party's newspaper II Popolo accused Defense Minister Lagorio, who is a Socialist, of "manipulating" the evidence against Bulgaria for internal partisan purposes.
U.S. intelligence officials are not so sure. Says one: "The circumstantial evidence seems overwhelming." The Reagan Administration remains divided on how to deal with any question of on how to deal with any question of Soviet complicity in the papal plot. Officials fear that U.S. accusations would not be credible to Western Europe's influential peace movement, and therefore prefer to let the burden of proof rest with European governments. Says a senior official: "We should sit back and enjoy it." Washington intelligence sources told TIME that two weeks ago Soviet diplomats approached officials of the French Communist Party to find a lawyer for Antonov. Says one: "I don't think they are doing this because they feel sorry for him."
As Italian outrage mounted, the Bulgarians invited Western reporters to a dramatic press conference in Sofia, at which they produced the two Bulgarian embassy officials not in Italian custody, as well as Antonov's wife Rosica. A Bulgarian spokesman denounced the Italian accusations as "an international provocation," while Rosica, in tears, denied Antonov's involvement "with such inhuman acts." Bulgaria invited Italian Magistrate Ilario Maftella, who is investigating the papal Maftella, who is investigating the papal plot, to come to Sofia to interview the suspects personally.