Crackhead Bookie

Crackhead bus driver is a bookie, feds charge

A school bus driver exposed as a crackhead in the Daily News was also moonlighting as a foulmouthed bookie for a gambling ring with ties to the Mafia, authorities said yesterday.

Frank Cappello, 53, was accused in a federal complaint unsealed in Brooklyn of collecting debts from gamblers who had lost bets as high as $10,000 on sporting events.

The News reported last week that Cappello was driving schoolchildren even after he was arrested in the lobby of a housing project with crack. The Education Department did not learn of the bust for more than a month until a union representative informed Cappello's bus company.

He tested positive for cocaine in September, and his certification to drive a school bus was revoked after 32 years on the job.