Joseph Chilli III, a Reputed Bonanno Crime Family Soldier, Hits Court in Tracksuit with Crocs #Mobster

He kept his enemies close, his friends closer — and his stylist nowhere in sight.

A reputed Bonanno crime family soldier got four years tacked onto his supervised release Tuesday over his seeming inability to cut ties with fellow accused wiseguys — but the most egregious misdeed on display at his appearance in Brooklyn federal court may have been his attire.

Hardly setting himself up to be confused with Dapper Don John Gotti, Joseph Chilli III ambled before a Brooklyn federal court judge wearing a blue-and-white Reebok tracksuit and a pair of black Crocs to explain his repeated connections to accused mobsters.

Photos show Chilli sported a similarly casual look — including a collared Fila shirt and white sneakers — during an arrest in 1989, a year when he and his father pleaded guilty to federal racketeering charges, according to a Newsday article at the time.

Freed in 2015 after a cocaine and heroin distribution conviction, The Slobfather has been on supervised release under conditions that include avoiding his connected pals — but Chilli’s lawyer admitted he has kept to his own kind, meeting with at least three reputed mobsters between October 2018 and March 2019.

Post-prison, Chilli, 63, has been helming a produce-delivery service, for which former cellmate and fellow reputed wiseguy Dominic DiFiore was helping to find clients, said lawyer Vincent Licata.

The company — which keeps city restaurants and pizzerias stocked with “tomato sauce, olive oil and meat,” according to Licata — also employs the son of another purported mobster, Salvatore Palmieri, as a truck driver. Not only that, Palmieri’s wife cleans Chilli’s house, according to Licata.

A third alleged member of La Cosa Nostra, Joseph Giddio, insisted on visiting the ailing Chilli at home to check on him, said Licata.

The attorney tried to argue that the connections were strictly business, but a fed-up Judge Nicholas Garaufis wasn’t buying it. “I’ve been dealing with these problems with the Bonanno organized crime family for the last 18 years, including violations of supervised release,” said Garafius, extending Chilli’s monitoring by four years — just days before it was set to expire on Friday.

“It’s a little bit sophomoric and a little bit simplistic to say you’re engaging in business with [these] people,” said Garaufis. “Work with people who don’t have these connections to organized crime.”

Thanks to Andrew Denney.

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