[What you need to know to start the day: Get New York Today in your inbox.]

Joseph Cammarano Jr. and John Zancocchio were Mafia bosses who profited from a mob-controlled dump on Staten Island, overseeing underlings who strong-armed victims to exact payments and instill fear.

Or so federal prosecutors say.

Lawyers for the two men have offered an alternative explanation and a novel defense: Their clients, known to their friends as Joe C and Porky, were profiled for their ethnicity — Italian.

“Looking like he stepped out of central casting in a mob movie doesn’t make you part of one of these groups,” said Jennifer Louis-Jeune, a lawyer defending Mr. Cammarano against racketeering and extortion charges.

And the Mafia? It’s the stuff of bad-old-days folklore, she said.

“Once upon a time, in a land far away, there was this thing called the Mafia and there were five families,” Ms. Louis-Jeune said.

