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US police arrest 127 mafia suspects

US law enforcement agents have arrested 127 alleged mafia members in a sweep across New York City, New Jersey and Rhode Island. More than 800 officers took part in Thursday's operation.

Reuters/WNBC-TV
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The suspects from the Cosa Nostra gang include several mafia bosses from the Colombo and Gambino families – two of the "Five Families", which have dominated organised crime in New York since the 1930s.

Charges include murder, loansharking, arson, drugs, robbery, labour racketeering and extortion, including a mob tax on Christmas bonuses paid to longshoremen working the New York and New Jersey docks.

The murders included a double killing that followed a dispute over a spilled drink in New York's Shamrock Bar in 1981.

It was the largest ever single-day operation against the organised crime, according to Attorney General Eric Holder. One of the arrests took place in Italy.

Italian mafia is still a major threat, according to Holder, who said the sweep involved unprecedented cooperation between the FBI, local police and other bodies.

New York's Five Families are the Genovese, Gambino, Lucchese, Colombo and Bonanno families.

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