Rome: Prince Victor Emmanuel, who lived in a former papal palace as a boy and spent his life among Switzerland's jet set, woke up in a jail cell on Saturday, arrested as part of a probe into prostitution and corruption.
The 69-year-old son of Italy's last king was one of 13 people detained in northern Italy on Friday in the investigation.
He was taken to a jail in southern Potenza, where the probe is based.
The prince is one of Italy's best-known figures and the arrest came as a shock even for a country hardened by scandals. Some newspapers dedicated five pages or more to the story.
"Women and Money - Victor Emmanuel ends up in handcuffs," was the headline in Milan's Il Giornale newspaper.
The operation that led to his arrest focuses on the activities of a casino in northern Italy.
It involved charges of corruption, trafficking in licences for video poker used in casinos, giving false testimony and abetting prostitution.
According to Italian media reports, investigators believe he had contacts with Mafia clans and was involved in procuring prostitutes for clients of the casino in Campione d'Italia, an Italian enclave on Lake Lugano near the Swiss border.
Magistrate Iannuzzi Alberto told reporters in southern Italy on Saturday he had decided to sign an arrest warrant for the prince and the other 12 men due to "extremely alarming evidence".
Among those detained was a top aide to the foreign minister in former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government which lost power in a national election in April.
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