Police officers from three different countries say they've dismantled a drug trafficking operation allegedly run by reputed Montreal mob boss Vito Rizzuto from prison.

Rizzuto is currently serving a 10-year sentence in the U.S. for his part in the slayings of three Mafia captains in 1981.

Investigators claim that Rizzuto, along with his 82-year-old father Nicolo "Nick" Rizutto, helped oversee the operation from behind bars.

Nick Rizutto is currently facing 23 charges, including gangsterism and importing and exporting illegal drugs. He was arrested in November 2005.

"From prison they pulled the strings of their Italian colonies," anti-mafia official Col. Paolo La Forgia told The Associated Press by phone.

Police in Italy, France and Canada helped crack the operation.

Officials in Rome said 11 people were arrested in Italy, one in Cannes, France, and seven Italian-Canadian citizens previously jailed in Montreal were served with additional warrants.

Along with drug trafficking, the suspects are accused of mafia association, money laundering and other financial crimes.

Two people arrested in Italy purportedly managed the group's Swiss bank accounts. According to La Forgia, officials seized companies, property and assets worth US$212 million.

Antonio Nicaso, who has written extensively about organized crime and is currently working on a book about Rizzuto, said it's not uncommon for prisoners to operate crime rings from prison.

"Our detention centres look like Club Med. We are using medium security prisons for people involved with shootings and narcotics trafficking," he told CTV News.

But none of the charges against Rizzuto and his father have been proven in court.

With files from The Associated Press and The Canadian Press