The very Hollywood-style history of the Gambinos, New York-based mafia family whose 16 members were busted

Sixteen members of the infamous Italian-American mafia crime family, the Gambinos, have been arrested recently at multiple locations in the US and Italy. The charges against them include racketeering, extortion, conspiracy and fraud, American prosecutors said on Tuesday.

Ten of them were arrested in the New York area and six by Italian authorities in Palermo, Sicily. One more suspect in the family is at large, as per the US Department of Justice.

Also Read |US: 24-year-old Indian origin student succumbs to stabbing attack injuries

Add WION as a Preferred Source

Among those arrested was a leader or "captain" in the Gambino family, Joseph "Joe Brooklyn" Lanni, alleged Gambino soldier Angelo "Fifi" Gradilone, and Francesco Vicari, also known as "Uncle Ciccio", an alleged Sicilian mafia associate and Gambino associate.

All you need to know about the Gambino crime family

The Gambinos are one of the five prominent New York-based mafia syndicates that dominate the organised crime activities in NYC. These five families are collectively known as La Cosa Nostra.

The family is named after Carlo Gambino who was the “boss” of the family in 1963 when the structure of organised crime first gained public attention during the McClellan hearings in the same year.

Also known as the Valachi hearings, the McClellan hearings investigated organised crime activities in the US. The hearings were initiated by Arkansas Senator John L. McClellan in 1963.

Also Read |Three giant pandas bid adieu to National Zoo in DC. Why is Beijing taking all its pandas back?

The family’s operations extend from New York and the eastern seaboard to California. Its illegal activities include labour and construction racketeering, gambling, extortion, money laundering, prostitution, fraud, hijacking and fencing.

The Gambino family established themselves as a mafia crime family in New York after the Castellammarese War of 1931.

It was a bloody power struggle for control of the Italian-American Mafia.

For most of their initial years, the family was a minor player in organised crime. It rose to some prominence in the underworld when Umberto “Albert” Anastasia was the head of the family. He was the operating head of the underworld’s enforcement arm, Murder, Inc.

Also Read |Ukrainian prisoners of war being sent to fight their own army: Report

The rise of what was the most powerful crime family in America for a time began in 1957 when Anastasia was assassinated while sitting in a barber chair at the Park Sheraton Hotel in Manhattan. It was believed that his murder was orchestrated by Carlo Gambino.

The family's fortunes grew through 1976 when Gambino appointed his brother-in-law Paul Castellano as boss upon his death. Castellano infuriated top dog John Gotti, who planned Castellano's murder in 1985.

Gotti's downfall came in 1992, when his underboss Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano cooperated with the FBI. Gravano's cooperation brought down Gotti, along with most of the top members of the Gambino family.

Beginning in 2015, the family was headed by Frank Cali until his assassination in March 2019.

(With inputs from agencies)