Italian authorities arrested 35 people in a series of raids against suspected mafia members, police said on Tuesday, as they stepped up the hunt for the country's most wanted fugitive.
The operation is part of a broader investigation aimed at capturing Matteo Messina Denaro, a boss of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra mafia who has been on the run since 1993, Carabinieri police said in a statement.
The raids, which used police helicopter teams, focused on alleged mafia members in the area of Trapani, a city in western Sicily, and led to the arrest of people suspected of criminal conspiracy, extortion and gambling, among other offences.
