Authorities arrested 121 organised crime suspects in what the FBI called the largest single-day operation against the Mafia in history. The roundup, conducted with the help of former mobsters turned informants, demonstrates the Mafia remains a threat despite decades of crackdowns that have sent its hierarchies to prison but also that its famed “omerta” code of silence is largely a myth, officials said. More than 800 federal and local law-enforcement officials detained suspects in at least four states plus one in Italy, targeting New York's five Mafia “families,” one in New Jersey and one in New England.
Sixteen grand jury indictments charged 127 suspects with murder, drug trafficking, extortion, gambling, loan-sharking and other crimes going back 30 years, US Attorney General Eric Holder told a news conference in New York.