A father and son with family ties to a notorious Staten Island mobster were arraigned Thursday on charges that they were hoarding weapons in their house, including ghost guns and the materials to make them.
Joseph Orapallo, 57, and his son, Frank Orapallo, 22, were in Staten Island Criminal Court a day after cops said they found a cache of weapons in their New Dorp home.
The older and younger suspects are the son and grandson of reputed Colombo crime family capo Joseph T. Tomasello, an organized crime boss arrested in 1998. Joseph Orapallo, opting to distance himself from his late father, uses his mother’s maiden name.
The NYPD and federal agents raided the home the Orapallos share with Joseph Orapallo’s wife, as well as Frank Orapallo’s baby and the mother of his child.
Prosecutors said cops executing a search warrant on their Locust Ave. home found eight loaded firearms, including five untraceable ghost guns which had no serial numbers.
One of the ghost guns was an AR-15-style assault rifle, and two additional AR-15-style assault weapons were also recovered, prosecutors said.
In addition to the firearms, cops found13 high-capacity magazines, a large quantity of ammunition of various calibers, three firearm silencers, three 3D printers, and two 3D-printed unfinished firearm frames, officials said.
One gun with eight rounds in the magazine was recovered in the kitchen, according to Andrew Crawford, an assistant district attorney.
Judge John McPadden set bail for Frank Orapallo at $250,000 cash, and $350,000 for his dad.
“To possess unlicensed weapons, this court feels is truly poor judgment,” said Judge John McPadden. “And poor judgment of a nature that gives this court great pause about whether or not our future court dates are going to be met. Therefore, I do find, based upon the factors that I’m permitted, that monetary bail is necessary for both Mr. Frank Orapallo and Joseph Orapallo.”
The father’s wife and the son’s fiancee sat next to each other in court, each of them crying during the bail arguments.
Lawyers for both defendants declined to comment after court.
It was not immediately clear if either Orapallo is involved in organized crime.
But their bloodline raised some eyebrows.
Tomasello’s capture in the ’90s came after his son, Joseph Orapallo, and his sister-in-law unknowingly led FBI agents to his hideout in the Catskills on the night of Orapallo’s wedding, the Daily News reported at the time.
For six years, Tomasello, a street boss with the Colombo crime family, had dodged federal agents after an infamous mob war in 1991 and 1992 that left 10 people dead. Tomasello was accused of participating in five of those slayings.
Tomasello was in federal prison until 2005, records show. He died in 2016.