Decades after their links were immortalised in The Godfather trilogy, police have swooped in on members of a major crime family.

They arrested 11 members of the Torretta clan, who stand accused of working with New York’s Gambino family.

“The connection is very much alive — the New York mafia still takes pride in its cultural roots in Sicily while ties to the US are a strong point for the Sicilians,” General Arturo Guarino, the Palermo Carabinieri commander, said.

The Torretta clan allegedly hosted Gambino emissary, Ernesto Grillo, in a villa near Palermo in 2018, where he was supposedly offered cocaine and taken to business meetings with senior crime figures.

When Frank Cali, a Gambino boss, was murdered in Staten Island in March 2019, the Torrettas worried he had been the victim of a hit and that the killing would precipitate a blood feud in the US.

The Torretta clan sent their affiliate to New York to meet with Grillo, find out who was heir to Cali and to determine the truth behind the killing.

It transpired that Anthony Comello, 24, a QAnon conspiracist, was behind the murder. He was deemed mentally unfit to stand trial.

General Guarino said of the affiliate: “Did he establish who the new Cali was? We can assume there are still connections. They were very worried it would hurt their business because Cali was the connection with Palermo.

“Palermo was looking to import drugs from South America and needed the help of New York since the route is now monopolised by the Italian ‘Ndrangheta mafia from Calabria.”