A swastika drawn in a Syosset High School bathroom led Nassau County police to something far more alarming: a home stocked with chemicals capable of making explosives.
Francisco Sanles, 48, of Syosset, was arrested Wednesday, April 22, after detectives investigating a hate crime incident at the high school found what police described as several chemicals combined to produce explosives inside the family’s residence. His 15-year-old son, suspected of drawing the swastika in the boys’ bathroom, was also arrested and faces five charges.
Police evacuated the home and surrounding residences after discovering the chemicals. The response was extensive: the Nassau County Fire Marshal, the Arson Bomb Squad, the Nassau County Police Emergency Service Unit, and the Nassau County Hazardous Material Response Team all converged on the property. The Hazmat team removed the materials.
Sanles faces seven counts. They include criminal possession of a weapon, criminal facilitation, endangering the welfare of a child, and reckless endangerment. Nassau County police said he purchased the chemicals on numerous separate occasions, suggesting the stockpile wasn’t accidental. He was arraigned the morning of April 23 at Nassau County First District Court, where he pleaded not guilty to all counts. He’s due back in court April 27.
The son faces charges of criminal possession of a weapon, criminal mischief, aggravated harassment, and making graffiti. His arraignment will take place in Nassau County Family Court, though police didn’t give a specific date.
What started as a graffiti complaint snowballed fast.
Syosset Superintendent Tom Rogers sent a letter to the school community April 22 explaining that investigators had found “swastikas and racial epithets” in the bathroom. The district launched its own parallel investigation, identified the student, and contacted Nassau County Police. Rogers said the student will face “serious consequences” under the district’s Code of Conduct, though he can’t discuss specifics of student discipline under federal law.
Rogers didn’t soften his message. “Antisemitism and hate speech have no place in our communities or in our schools,” he wrote, according to Long Island Press. “Syosset has long been proud of being a welcoming, empathetic, and inclusive community and those values remain firm. We protect those values and this community by confronting and holding accountable those who traffic in any form of hate.”
A second letter from Rogers followed April 23, after the scope of the arrest became public. He wrote that the district is cooperating with law enforcement and that police will maintain a visible presence at school, though classes will continue as normal. A district spokesperson declined to comment further, citing the active investigation.
Syosset Central School District enrolls roughly 6,700 students across Nassau County and has a reputation as one of the top-performing districts on Long Island. Parents there expect safe schools. Finding out that a student allegedly responsible for a hate-crime incident had a parent with a cache of explosive-making materials inside the same community was a gut punch to that expectation.
The Nassau County Police Department’s response illustrates how quickly a graffiti call can scale. What officers initially treated as a criminal mischief and bias incident became a multi-agency hazardous materials operation within hours. Nassau County’s Arson Bomb Squad and its Emergency Service Unit are typically reserved for credible, high-stakes threats, which tells you how seriously investigators regarded what they found inside that Syosset home.
State law on criminal possession of a weapon extends well beyond firearms, covering materials assembled or possessed for use as weapons, including improvised explosive components. Legal experts familiar with Nassau County proceedings say the number of counts Sanles faces, seven total, signals prosecutors are likely building a layered case rather than relying on a single charge. The Nassau County District Attorney’s office prosecutes such cases through its Violent Crimes Bureau.
The incident intersects with a documented rise in antisemitic incidents on Long Island tracked by organizations like the Anti-Defamation League. Nassau County has seen multiple bias-motivated crimes reported at schools over the past two school years. Each one is handled individually, but the pattern is something Rogers and other superintendents across the county are watching closely.
Rogers’ letters, taken together, signal that Syosset’s administration wasn’t caught flat-footed. The district identified the student, reported to police, and communicated with families before the arrest was even made public. That sequence matters for maintaining trust with a school community that will have plenty of hard questions when students return to those hallways.