http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12243086
US federal agents have arrested more than 100 suspected mobsters in multiple investigations into New York's organised crime families.
The arrests were made on Thursday morning throughout New York City, New Jersey, Rhode Island and other areas in the north-east US, FBI officials said.
The arrests are tied to charges of murder, extortion and narcotics.
Attorney General Eric Holder is expected to discuss details of the case at a news conference later on Thursday.
"Early this morning, FBI agents along with our law enforcement partners began arresting over 100 organised crime members for various criminal charges," FBI investigator Diego Rodriguez told a local NBC News affiliate in New York City.
Officials said alleged leaders of the Gambino, Genovese, Lucchese, Bonanno, Colombo and DeCavalcante families were among those who had been arrested.
"It was very broad scope," New York FBI spokesman Robert Nardoza told the AFP news agency.
Early morning arrests
Some of the arrests were made as the result of information obtained through federal probes and informants, local media reported.
Suspects arrested on Thursday are being charged with a range of crimes, which include racketeering, extortion, gambling and loan sharking.
The sweep began before dawn on Thursday with federal agents arresting a range of individuals being investigated, from suspected small-time bookers to senior family leaders, the New York Times newspaper said.
The arrests are reportedly part of one of the largest mafia crackdowns conducted by federal authorities in the US.
Former mafia member Salvatore Vitale was sentenced to prison in October after federal officials and prosecutors praised his work in double-crossing his own crime syndacate.
Vitale, who was arrested in 2003, gave authorities information on at least 11 murders, which helped bring down the once prominent Bonanno family in the New York area.
John "Sonny" Franzese, a 93-year-old member of the Colombo crime family, was also sentenced in Brooklyn on Friday to eight years in prison for extorting strip clubs and a pizzeria in the New York Metro Area.
Mafia families in the US have seen a sharp decline in fortunes in the the past 10 years as the result of court testimony from informants, who have begun breaking their code of silence in recent years.
