Latest News

American Airlines ex-mechanic gets 9 years prison for smuggling drug concealed under cockpit

A former American Airlines aircraft mechanic was sentenced on Friday to 9 years in jail after being convicted of trying to smuggle cocaine covert below the cockpit of a flight to New york city from Jamaica.

Paul Belloisi, 56, of Smithtown, New York, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Dora Irizarry in Brooklyn, after being founded guilty in May 2023 of conspiring to possess cocaine, conspiring to import cocaine and importing drug.

The case developed from a regular search of American flight 1349 following its Feb. 4, 2020 arrival at New york city's John F. Kennedy International Airport, where Belloisi had been an American mechanic for more than 20 years, from Montego Bay, Jamaica.

District attorneys said custom officers discovered 10 drug bricks weighing 25.6 pounds (11.6 kg) in an electronic devices compartment beneath the cockpit, and changed them with phony bricks sprayed with a substance that shines under a special black light.

Belloisi apparently drove up to the plane before it could take off again, and went into the electronic devices compartment.

District attorneys said police challenged him, and showed that he managed the fake bricks since his gloves shone under the black light. They likewise stated Belloisi was carrying an empty tool bag and wore a coat large enough to hold the cocaine.

The cocaine had a street worth of more than $250,000. American was not accused of misdeed.

Belloisi's legal representative David Cohen, from the law practice Cohen Forman Barone, stated his client plans to appeal his conviction.

Provided Mr. Belloisi's individual history, along with nationwide and district-wide data, this was an excessive sentence, far beyond what is essential to accomplish the objectives of sentencing, Cohen said in an interview.

Irizarry on Friday independently declined Belloisi's. request for an acquittal.

She wrote that jurors could presume beyond a sensible doubt. that Belloisi knew the drug was aboard flight 1349 and. intentionally conspired and assisted in its importation.

In a statement, U.S. Attorney Breon Peace in Brooklyn said. Belloisi's conduct posed a severe risk to the security of a. essential border crossing in our district and our transportation. infrastructure..

(source: Reuters)