In recent years, John A. Gotti, once the acting boss of the Gambino crime family, has become something of an elusive bull’s-eye for federal prosecutors. In just over a year, Mr. Gotti was prosecuted three times on charges relating to organized crime, but each time the case ended in a mistrial. Prosecutors decided in October 2006 to drop the case.

But on Tuesday, Mr. Gotti was arrested on federal conspiracy charges, linking him to the killings of three men in New York in the 1980s and ’90s, federal authorities said.

According to an indictment, handed up in Tampa, Fla., Mr. Gotti, 44, is accused of conspiracy to commit murder in the killings of George Grosso in 1988, Louis DiBono in 1990 and Bruce John Gotterup in 1991. He has also been accused of possessing and trafficking in more than five grams of cocaine. If convicted on all charges, Mr. Gotti could face life in prison.

Mr. Gotti was arrested at his home in Oyster Bay, N.Y., on Tuesday morning and appeared in the United States District Court in Manhattan in the afternoon. He is to be formally charged in Tampa, where federal prosecutors are handling the case because, authorities said, some of the Gambinos’ operations are based there.