By Forum Staff
On Friday, at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, Paul Belloisi, a former American Airlines mechanic at John F. Kennedy International Airport, was sentenced to 108 months in prison for his role in a conspiracy to import and possess cocaine.
Belloisi, 56, of Long Island, was convicted in May 2023 following a one-week jury trial of all three counts of an indictment charging him with conspiring to possess and import cocaine, and importing cocaine.
Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia/Russavia
Federal officers found 10 bricks of cocaine weighing 25.56 pounds hidden inside an electronics compartment on the underside of the cockpit of an American Airlines aircraft.
On Feb. 4, 2020, American Airlines flight 1349 arrived at JFK Airport’s Terminal 8 from Montego Bay, Jamaica. The aircraft was selected for a routine search by CBP officers from the JFK Airport Anti-Terrorism Contraband Enforcement Team. The officers found 10 bricks of cocaine weighing 25.56 pounds hidden inside an electronics compartment on the underside of the cockpit. The cocaine was replaced with fake bricks and sprayed with a substance that glows when illuminated with a special black light. CBP officers and HSI special agents placed the aircraft under surveillance from a distance and shortly before it was scheduled to take off for its next flight, they observed Belloisi drive up and pull himself inside the electronics compartment. Belloisi was confronted by law enforcement who observed his gloves glowing under the black light indicating he had handled the fake bricks. Belloisi was also carrying an empty tool bag and the lining of his jacket had cutouts sufficiently large enough to hold the bricks. The cocaine found in the aircraft had a street value of more than $250,000.
