Italian authorities said Wednesday they had seized assets worth more than 1.6 billion euros ($1.75 billion) from a wealthy Sicilian family believed to have links to the mafia, anti-mafia investigators said.

The operation by the Palermo-based court was aimed at "known entrepreneurs from the Palermo area who belong to the Marineo mafia family, linked to the Corleone clan," the anti-mafia department (DIA) said.