Anti-mafia police on Monday arrested 22 alleged Sicilian mafia bosses and henchmen after local businesses rebelled against an extortion racket that exerted a stranglehold on the province of Palermo.
The suspects were arrested in dawn raids in the mafia stronghold of Bahgeria, east of Palermo and charges including mafia association, extortion, kidnap and arson.
The arrests came after 36 local business people including builders, fruit and vegetable wholesalers, and bar, gaming parlour and betting shop owners broke their silence and reported the extortion racket to police.
Italy's prime minister Matteo Renzi hailed Monday's arrests.
"Thanks to the courage of those who refused to be blackmailed, to police and investigators, Bagheria doesn't belong to the mafia," he said in a Tweet.
An investigation, begun in May 2013, revealed "suffocating pressure exerted on local businesses by a succession of feared individuals who head the crime syndicate," anti-mafia police said.
Among 50 documented cases of extortion was that of a local builder who began paying so-called "protection money" in the 1990s and for a decade handed over 1,500 euros a month to a jailed Sicilian mafia boss's family as well as a hefty commission on tenders, investigators said.
The probe was spearheaded by Palermo anti-mafia prosecutors.
