The FBI arrested a reputed Gambino solider Wednesday on charges he provided protection for a Sicilian mobster operating in Florida — part of an international sweep aimed at further crippling the storied crime family and disrupting its ties to the Italian mob.
Wiretaps show that Gaetano Napoli Sr. had a "close relationship" with Roberto Settineri, a suspected member of the Sicilian Mafia facing charges in Florida and Italy, federal prosecutors said. They said Napoli helped settle a dispute last year between Settineri and members of the Colombo crime family.
Napoli and a son, Gaetano Napoli Jr., were arrested Wednesday in North Carolina on extortion, bankruptcy fraud and other charges contained in an indictment unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn. A second son named in the indictment, Thomas Napoli, was arrested in New York and was to be arraigned later in the day.
FBI agents also arrested Settineri on Wednesday in Florida on money laundering and obstruction of justice hours before he was to fly from Miami to Italy, authorities said. Simultaneously, authorities in Italy executed 20 arrest warrants targeting a Palermo-based Mafia crime family suspected of running extortion, money laundering and drug trafficking operations.
Police released video of the Palermo raids showing Italian police and FBI agents discovering weapons, including guns stashed away in the rear compressor space of a refrigerator.
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