ROME (AP) — An Italian lawmaker has decried a secret arrangement in which intelligence agents paid imprisoned top Mafiosi for information during several of the years when Silvio Berlusconi was premier.

Claudio Fava, vice president of Parliament’s anti-Mafia commission, told reporters Tuesday that magistrates who investigate Italy’s organized crime syndicates were kept in the dark about the practice, described in a written protocol between the now-defunct intelligence agency Sisde and the national prison administration agency. The practice came to light after Premier Matteo Renzi declassified the document in July, and the arrangement was subsequently made public at the appeals trial of a former Sisde chief, Mario Mori, in Palermo, Sicily.