Mobsters arrested in Cosa Nostra crackdown in Italy and United States

Italy-FBI raids crack down on Mafia in US, Sicily

ROME — Police arrested organized crime suspects in Sicily, New York and Miami on Wednesday in raids aimed at dismantling a Palermo-based Mafia family, Italian authorities said.

Police in Palermo said the crackdown on the Cosa Nostra crime syndicate was still being carried out Wednesday afternoon.

So far, national police in Rome say 21 warrants, including for a Miami resident, were issued by Palermo-based anti-Mafia magistrates. Italian authorities said six arrests were made in the United States.

The crackdown targeted a Palermo-based Mafia crime family, and those named in the warrants are suspected of being mobsters and running extortion, money laundering and drug trafficking operations, Italian police said.

In the United States, federal authorities said that a father and his two sons who operated a trucking company were arrested in New York on bankruptcy fraud charges. They are accused of hiding assets after the company went bankrupt, said authorities, alleging that the father is a soldier in the U.S.-based Gambino crime family.

Italian police released video of the Palermo raids showing Italian police and FBI agents discovering weapons, including guns stashed away in the rear compressor space of a refrigerator.