
Italian anti-mafia police and the FBI in New York have arrested 19 people, in coordinated raids on historic mobster families bidding for power within the Cosa Nostra, investigators said Wednesday.
Raids in both countries targeted links between the Sicilian Mafia -- known as the Cosa Nostra -- and US organised crime, said an Italian police statement.
Italian police said 18 people had been arrested in Italy and one in the United States.
Among those arrested was Thomas Gambino, considered by the FBI to be a key player. Police also cuffed members of the Inzerillo family, said Italian prosecutor Roberto Tartaglia.
During their investigation, they said, they secretly filmed Gambino holding a covert meeting with the head of the Inzerillo family on a rubber dinghy off the coast of Palermo last summer.
The Inzerillo crime family has been trying to rebuild after the 2017 death of its enemy, Boss of Bosses Salvatore "Toto" Riina, police said.
The investigation, dubbed "New Connection" by the Italian police, revealed "the strong bond established between Cosa Nostra in Palermo and US organized crime," it said.
Investigators focussed in particular on the Gambino crime family in New York.