Jailed don Joseph Massino secretly recorded his successor plotting the assassination of a federal prosecutor, becoming the first head of a New York Mafia family known to have turned government informant, sources familiar with the case said.

A team of FBI agents in New York has begun digging for the remains of a half dozen or more victims of former Gambino crime family boss John Gotti, the so-called “Teflon Don”, who died in prison two years ago.

A Mafia “godfather” clawed his way to the top of a major US crime organisation with a string of hits on fellow gangsters, a court has heard.

More than two dozen members of an alleged organised crime family were in custody today after a major FBI raid in New York.

A FABLED, 20-year-old FBI undercover operation resurfaced to shock the US underworld this week.