NEW YORK ( CNN ) -- A massive anti-mafia sweep that stretched from New York to Sicily has not only cut off the head of the Gambino crime family but lopped off `` the shoulders and chest '' too , a spokesman for the attorney general of New York said . John `` Jackie the Nose '' D'Amico , shown in 1992 , is one of 62 Gambino crime family members indicted . Sixty-two people from the Gambino , Genovese and Bonanno families face 80 charges , ranging from money laundering , to illegal gambling and murder . `` These charges strike at the very core of the Gambino family , '' Benton Campbell , U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York said Thursday . According to the charges , the Gambino family profited from extortion within the New York construction industry and its labor unions . Several companies allegedly paid a `` mob tax '' in return for `` protection '' and `` permission to operate , '' said Inspector General Hedell from the U.S. Department of Labor . Watch as dozens charged in anti-mafia sweep » . Other charges involve an alleged illegal gambling ring , said Richard Brown , Queens County District Attorney . Brown alleged that Nicholas Corozzo , a reputed captain in the Gambino family , was involved in a sports gambling enterprise that relied , in part , on toll-free telephones . According to the indictment , four members of the Gambino family are charged with eight crimes involving murder . Those charges include the murder of Jose Delgado Rivera , who was shot and killed in an armored truck during a robbery in 1990 . `` Today we are able to bring closure to crimes from the past that have never been forgotten , '' said Campbell . He said crimes span over three decades . Key to the Gambino arrests was someone from the attorney general 's Organized Crime Task Force who infiltrated the Gambino family and recorded hundreds of hours of conversations , said John Milgrim , a spokesman for the attorney general . They not only cut off the head of the organization but `` the shoulders and chest '' too , said Milgrim . Forty-five of those charged are already in custody , police said . Arrests were made in New York City , Long Island and New Jersey . `` It is as unrelenting as weeds that continue to sprout in the cracks of society , '' New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said of organized crime . `` We will not rest until organized crime is a distant memory . '' In addition to the arrests in the New York area , police in Italy made 77 arrests in connection with organized crime . Francesco Gratteri of the Italian National Anti-Crime Police said they arrested 23 in Palermo , the rest in New York . These arrests were of important members of a powerful clan in Sicily linked to mafia boss Salvatore Lo Piccolo , who was believed to be the successor to the boss of bosses , Bernardo Provenzano , police said . Police added that , in his attempt to rise to power , Lo Piccolo tried to mend fences with New York-based mafia families after those ties were broken during the bloody mafia wars of the 1980 's . These families included the Gambinos of New York and the Inzerillos of Italy . Provenzano was arrested two years ago in Corleone . `` It is evident that the intent of the mafia in Palermo was to re-establish a dialogue through the Inzerillo family in the U.S. , '' said Francesco Messineo of the Italian police . `` A dialogue that was never interrupted because the relationship between the American and the Italian mafia is historic , based on long tradition . But there was certainly an attempt to re-establish that connection . '' Investigators believe mob clans wanted to collaborate on illegal commercial ventures such as money-laundering and drug-trafficking . Italian officials said the arrests were aimed at preventing these illegal activities , but they warned that other mafia clans in Sicily oppose the return of the Inzerillo family to the island , and therefore were concerned about a new mafia war . E-mail to a friend . Deborah Feyerick in New York and Alessio Vinci in Rome contibuted to this report .
Operation targets organized crime in U.S. , Italy . Dozens in custody ; others sought . U.S. grand jury names 62 reputed members of Gambino crime family . Feds say suspects involved in international drug trafficking , robbery , murder , extortion .