Sicily, New York Raids Target Powerful Crime Family
Rome, (APP – UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 9th Nov, 2023) Italian police and the FBI staged coordinated raids Wednesday against suspected members of the mafia in Sicily and New York, targeting the powerful Gambino crime family and its associates.
Warrants for the arrest of 17 suspects were executed, seven in the Palermo region of Sicily — the Italian island home to the Cosa Nostra Mafia — and 10 in New York, Italian police said in a statement.
They stand accused of crimes ranging from mafia and criminal association to extortion, arson and auction rigging, it said.
The US Department of Justice later clarified that only 16 of the suspects had actually been detained, saying one individual targeted in Italy remains at large.
It confirmed ten alleged members or associates of the Gambino family had been arrested in the US raids, charged with racketeering conspiracy, extortion, witness retaliation and “union-related crimes”.
“As alleged, for years, the defendants committed violent extortions, assaults, arson, witness retaliation and other crimes in an attempt to dominate the New York carting (waste disposal) and demolition industries,” US Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement.
In one incident, the US government alleges, two of the suspects coordinated a “violent hammer assault” on a member of a demolition company with whom they had a financial dispute — and then circulated the pictures to others in the industry.
Italian police said investigations had also highlighted extortion against restauranteurs of Sicilian origin in New York, as a way of pressuring their families back home.
