NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. authorities arrested 54 organized crime suspects on Thursday including what they considered three high-ranking members of the Gambino crime family in an operation in New York and Italy, officials said.
A number of arrests had also been made in Sicily, judicialsources in Italy said.
Charges were being filed against 62 people including thestreet boss, the under boss and the consigliere of the Gambinofamily -- the three highest ranking members not already inprison, a U.S. law enforcement source said.
Fifty-four were arrested early on Thursday, mostly in theNew York area, on accusations of murder, racketeering,extortion, loan-sharking and labour violations includingpension fund embezzlement, the source said.
The U.S. source, who had direct knowledge of the operation,asked not to be identified because the U.S. Attorney's officein Brooklyn was due to announce the arrests in a newsconference later on Thursday.
The Italian Interior Ministry was also due to hold a newsconference about a "large operation against organized crime" onThursday afternoon, without giving details.
Earlier on Thursday, judicial sources in Sicily said alarge anti-Mafia operation code-named "Old Bridge" involvedarrests 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, the Italian sources said.
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 Daniel Trotta in New York, WladimirPantaleone in Palermo and Laura Viggiani in Naples, editing byPhilip Pullella, Mary Gabriel and Vicki Allen)
