US, Italy raid Mafia in NY, Sicily

NEW YORK (AP) - A suspected member of the Gambino crime family and two of his sons have been arrested on bankruptcy fraud charges in New York in a series of Mafia-related arrests in two countries, federal officials said Wednesday.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to talk about the arrests, which have not been formally announced.

The defendants are accused of hiding assets after their trucking company went bankrupt, said one of the officials who is familiar with the case. One of the three suspects arrested in New York is suspected of providing protection to a Sicilian mob associate operating in the U.S., the second official said.

Italian police said several Mafia suspects have been also been arrested in raids in Sicily and Miami, and that the crackdown on the Cosa Nostra crime syndicate was still being carried out Wednesday.

National police in Rome said that 20 warrants have been issued so far in Palermo and that six arrests have been made in the United States. Police say that the crackdown targeted a Palermo-based Mafia crime family, and that those named in the warrants are suspected of being mobsters and running extortion, money laundering and drug trafficking operations.

Police also 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.