11 arrests in Mafia sweep near Palermo

(ANSA) - PALERMO, JUL 14 - Italian police on Wednesday arrested 11 people in a sweep that hit a Sicilian Mafia clan based in the town of Torretta near Palermo.
    Torretta, a town with 4,000 inhabitants in the Palermo hinterland, has always had solid links to New York crime families, police said.
    They were consolidated when the losers in the Second Mafia War unleashed by Toto 'the Beast' Riina emigrated to the US.
    An emissary from one of the New York families was welcomed to Torretta in September 2018, police said.
    The Torretta family controls public works, construction, agriculture and animal rearing in the local area, police said.
    The 'pizzini' or notes conveying confidential information sent to fugitive superboss Matteo Messina Denaro went through Torretta, police said. (ANSA).