127 arrested in FBI mafia crackdown

THE FBI launched its biggest crackdown ever on the New York area’s infamous La Cosa Nostra organised crime network, in a massive roundup before daybreak yesterday of 127 alleged mafia members and associates.

“Today’s arrests and charges mark an important step forward in disrupting La Cosa Nostra’s illegal activities,” US attorney general Eric Holder said at a press conference.

Holder called the sweep “the largest single-day operation” against the infamous organised crime network.

Those detained included 91 members and associates of seven organised crime families throughout New York and the New England area, who faced charges ranging from drug dealing to murder.

Federal officials said other charges included murder, loansharking, arson, drugs, extortion, robbery, labour racketeering.

“The indictments charge leaders of these criminal enterprises, as well as mid-level managers... and others alleged to be corrupt union officials,” said Holder, the top US law enforcement official, whose presence underscored the significance of the crackdown.

Cosa Nostra families once infiltrated and controlled swathes of the US economy, but New York’s historic Five Families of Italian-American mobsters have seen a sharp decline in fortunes over the last decade as a result of court testimony from turncoats breaking the once impenetrable code of silence.