On Monday, a judge sent the head of one of New York’s mafia families and his two associates to prison for life for the murder of a gang member who refused to help him collect debts.

Italian police in Sicily arrested on Wednesday 45 people believed to be linked to theCosa Nostra mafia, while German police arrested the clan’s deputy leader in the southwestern town of Wolzburg.

Police in Italy have arrested more than 90 members and associates of the Sicily-based Cosa Nostra syndicate, including a former star of the reality TV show Big Brother.

Italian police struck a blow against the Sicilian mafia on Monday when it arrested more than 30 members of the crime syndicate across the country.

Sicilian police seized gas industry companies, real estate, cars and cash in Italy, Spain and Andorra as part of a crackdown on money laundering operations by the infamous Corleonesi mafia clan, Palermo prosecutors said Friday.

Italian authorities arrested on early Tuesday morning one person and searched 25 homes looking for the alleged boss of a major Sicilian mafia clan who is hiding from them for more than two decades.

Italy’s military police descended upon Palermo, Sicily at the break of dawn Tuesday to arrest the alleged leader of Sicily’s notorious Mafia, also known as the Cosa Nostra, ANSA reported.

Italian authorities have seized €1.5 billion ($US 1.7 billion) in assets from the heirs of a late businessman who had allegedly built his wealth on funds provided by Sicily’s notorious Cosa Nostra organized crime group, the country’s Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate (DIA) announced Saturday.

Italian police announced on Thursday that they arrested 22 close associates of the boss of all bosses of the Sicilian mafia, who has been on the run since 1993 but still kept issuing orders on paper notes, or “pizzini,” some of which were hidden under a rock.

The lawyers of former crime boss Francis Salemme told the US court in Boston that statements made by a man he allegedly murdered were “inadmissible hearsay,” the Boston Globe reported on Monday.

A South-Sicilian clan of the Cosa Nostra planned to use dynamite to kill journalist Paolo Borrometi, who has been investigating the mafia for years, ANSA reported Tuesday.

Italian police arrested on Thursday 23 people suspected of having links to the Cosa Nostra, including a gambling entrepreneur believed to have partnered with the Sicilian mafia to expand his business empire.

Federal authorities indicted ten suspected members of the Sicilian mafia on Friday with extortion, loansharking, wire and mail fraud, narcotics distribution, and conspiracy to commit murder on behalf of the Cosa Nostra.

She was called the “Mistress”.

A Rome court sent 41 people to jailon Thursday for corruption, extortion and bid rigging, but dismissed claims by prosecutors that the gang was amafia organization.

The driver for the Kosovo Consulate in New York was among eight people arrested for trafficking arms and drugs and laundering money for Italian and Kosovo criminal groups as well as for Mexican drug cartels, BIRN reported Friday.

Italian police say the Sicilian Mafia Cosa Nostra is allegedly collaborating with a Nigerian organized criminal group called the Vikings, which is now controlling drug and prostitution rings in Palermo, media reported Wednesday.

Italian police said Monday that in a crackdown on a mafia gang they arrested 14 people and took control over several businesses, including four management offices of the Lidl supermarket chain.

Italy’s government has dissolved the entire council of the Sicilian town of Corleone – made famous by the "Godfather" films and books – on suspicion of Mafia infiltration.

The Italian Carabinieri, in cooperation with Europol, arrested two leading members of the "Ceusi" crime gang for international military weapons trafficking. According to Europol, the gang has links to the Cosa Nostra crime group.