PALERMO, Sicily (Reuters) - A large anti-Mafia operation involving arrests in Italy and the United States was under way on Thursday, judicial sources in Sicily said.
They said the operation, codenamed "Old Bridge", involvedarrest warrants issued on both sides of the Atlantic.
The operation was being carried out by police in Italy --mostly in Sicily -- and the FBI in the United States -- mostlyin the New York area.
A number of arrests had already been made in Sicily, thesources said.
The Italian Interior Ministry said it would hold a newsconference about a "large operation against organised crime" onThursday afternoon, without giving details.
In what appeared to be a separate operation in Naples,police arrested a suspected leading figure of that southerncity's criminal underworld on Thursday.
Vincenzo Licciardi, 42, purportedly a boss of the Camorracrime group, was arrested in a Naples suburb. He had been onthe run since 2004 and was one of Italy's 30 most wantedcriminals, police said.
He is linked to the Secondigliano clan, part of thefragmented Camorra whose criminal activities include illegalwaste disposal, one of the causes of an emergency in Napleswhere refuse collection has all but collapsed.
The Camorra is thought to be much less unified in structurethat the Sicilian Mafia, made up of rival clans that oftenclash violently in turf wars.
(Reporting by Wladimir Pantaleone in Palermo and LauraViggiani in Naples, editing by Philip Pullella and MaryGabriel)
