By MURRAY WEISS, New York Post

June 10, 2002 -- Mob investigators are probing millions of dollars in waterfront contracts doled out by the Conservative Party bigwig who ran the city's largest port - including a sweetheart deal with the son of the Staten Island borough president,The Post has learned.

Sources say the non-competitively bid contract given out by Carmine Ragucci to APS Trucking to move containers was worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to Steven Molinaro, son of Staten Island Beep James Molinaro, and to the young Molinaro's partner, Salvatore Calcagno, who is the Beep's campaign-finance manager.

In addition, Steven Molinaro and Calcagno also cashed in on the so-called "Banana Building," a Port Authority-subsidized warehouse that became a multimillion-dollar taxpayer boondoggle plagued by shoddy construction, inferior materials and cheap, non-union and unskilled labor.

Law-enforcement sources said the Beep's son and Calcagno collected $300,000 at the Banana Building, but not for work they did.

The two trucking partners said their profit was a fee for work they subcontracted to other unidentified companies, the sources said.

Last week, the feds arrested 17 Gambino crime-family wiseguys, including Peter Gotti, on extortion charges at the Howland Hook Container Terminal.

Ragucci, head of Staten Island's Conservative Party, paid $2,000 a month in extortion payments, but curiously never sought help from friends like Gov. Pataki, and he has yet to cooperate with probers.

The Banana Building was also Ragucci's brainchild.

Repeated calls to Ragucci, his lawyer, Calcagno and both Molinaros seeking comment were not returned.