Police said that around 200 officers fanned out in Sicily and in the New York area on Wednesday, arresting 18 suspects in Italy and one in the US.
Palermo Police Chief Renato Cortese told reporters that members of the Sicilian Passo di Rigano crime clan had migrated to the US in the 1980s after surviving a turf war with the Corleone crime clan, which emerged victorious over the Inzerillo crime family in the Palermo area.
Some survivors apparently returned to Italy after the weakening of the long-dominant Corleone crime family.
Salvatore “Toto” Riina, the Corleone clan chieftain, died in an Italian prison in 2017.
€3 million euro in alleged Mafia assets were seized as part of the raids.
