Police in Canada arrested some 90 suspected mobsters this morning, including the father of a man who allegedly killed members of the Bonanno crime family in New York, dealing what they described as a major blow to organised crime.

The reputed godfather of the Montreal Mafia has lost an appeal against deportation to the United States to face charges stemming from the killings of three US mob captains in 1981.

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