Seventeen men have been arrested in Sicily and the United States in a joint anti-mafia operation by the FBI and Italian police, writes The Guardian.

The arrests come after a two-year investigation targeting members of New York’s notorious Gambino crime family and some of its Sicilian associates based in the province of Palermo. Seven men were arrested in Sicily and 10 in New York.

They stand accused of crimes ranging from mafia and criminal association to extortion, arson and auction rigging, Italian police said in a statement.

Prosecutors in Palermo said the investigation had shed light on “the solidity of the existing relationship” between New York and Sicilian mobsters and “American interest in the organisational affairs of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra”.

The Gambinos are one of the five historic Italian American mafia families in New York. Previous charges against family members have included murder, loan sharking and illegal drug distribution.