100-plus alleged mobsters are swept up in predawn raids

So much for the mob being dead. The FBI conducted sweeping predawn raids across the Northeast on Thursday morning, arresting more than 100 alleged mafia members in a roundup that sounds similar to the finale of the fifth season of "The Sopranos."

According to reports, the raid focused on seven alleged crime families in New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island. The suspects are to be arraigned on suspicion of crimes commonly associated with the mob: murder, extortion, racketeering, illegal bookmaking and loan-sharking, among other charges. Some of the men are suspected of crimes dating back to the 1980s.

Reports the New York Times:

The sweep began before dawn and the targets ranged from small-time book makers and crime-family functionaries to a number of senior mob figures and several corrupt union officials, according to several people briefed on the arrests. Among those arrested or sought, some of the people said, were more than two dozen made members of New York's five crime families and the families in New Jersey and New England, along with dozens of their associates.

Attorney General Eric Holder is holding a news conference Thursday to announce the arrests and the charges that federal prosecutors will pursue in the case.