Paul Belloisi, a former American Airlines mechanic at John F. Kennedy International Airport, was sentenced to nine years in federal prison for conspiring to import more than 25 pounds of cocaine. The cocaine was discovered hidden in a sensitive electronics compartment beneath the cockpit of a jetliner arriving from Montego Bay, Jamaica.
Belloisi, 56, was sentenced on Friday by U.S. District Judge Dora Irizarry in Brooklyn federal court after being convicted in May of three counts related to cocaine possession and importation. The conviction followed a one-week jury trial where prosecutors detailed how Belloisi used his insider access at JFK to further a sophisticated drug smuggling operation.
“The defendant abused his insider position at JFK Airport to help smuggle more than 25 pounds of cocaine into the United States in a highly sensitive electronics compartment of an international aircraft,” said U.S. Attorney Breon Peace.
“This conduct not only furthers the trafficking of drugs that harms our communities, but also poses a serious threat to the security of a vital border crossing in our district and our transportation infrastructure,” Peace continued. “Today’s sentence demonstrates that the government takes these threats very seriously, and those who work in trusted positions at our airports and in other critical industries must know that they face serious consequences for crimes of corruption.”
The drug-smuggling operation unraveled on Feb. 4, 2020, when American Airlines Flight 1349 arrived at JFK from Jamaica. During a routine search, officers from the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Anti-Terrorism Contraband Enforcement Team found 10 bricks of cocaine hidden inside the plane’s electronics compartment. The bricks, weighing more than 25 pounds, had a street value exceeding $250,000.
Law enforcement agents replaced the cocaine with fake bricks and dusted them with a chemical that glows under black light. Belloisi was placed under surveillance, and just before the plane’s next scheduled flight, he was seen climbing into the electronics compartment. He was confronted by officers, and the black light revealed that his gloves had been contaminated with the chemical. Belloisi was also carrying an empty tool bag and had a jacket lining with cutouts large enough to hold the cocaine bricks.
Belloisi, from Smithtown, New York, now faces 108 months in federal prison.
