Italian police seized assets worth more than €1.6bn from five Sicilian siblings suspected of links to the island’s Cosa Nostra mafia, in one of the biggest ever such operations.

Italy’s president testified for three hours yesterday behind closed doors in a Mafia trial over purported negotiations between the state and organised crime to stop terror attacks in the 1990s, an unprecedented commingling of politics, law enforcement and the mob inside the presidential palace.

WHEN Don Corleone’s daughter got married in the film, The Godfather, the guests kissed his hand and he dispensed favours because no Sicilian Mafia boss could refuse a request on the day of his daughter’s wedding.

ITALY’S reputed No 1 Mafia boss was arrested yesterday at a farmhouse in Sicily after evading capture for more than 40 years.