American Airlines ex-mechanic gets 9 years prison for smuggling cocaine hidden under cockpit of JFK-bound flight

A former American Airlines aircraft mechanic was sentenced on Friday to nine years in prison after being convicted of trying to smuggle cocaine hidden beneath the cockpit of a flight to New York from Jamaica.

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

The case arose from a routine search of American flight 1349 following its Feb. 4, 2020 arrival at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, where Belloisi had been an American mechanic for more than two decades, from Montego Bay, Jamaica.

I flew the cheapest business class from NYC to Europe — I expected a disaster for my $500 but then something good happened

Prosecutors said custom officers found 10 cocaine bricks weighing 25.6 pounds in an electronics compartment beneath the cockpit, and replaced them with fake bricks sprayed with a substance that glows under a special black light.

Belloisi allegedly drove up to the plane before it could take off again, and entered the electronics compartment.

Prosecutors said law enforcement confronted him, and showed that he handled the fake bricks because his gloves glowed under the black light.

‘Diarrhea’ blamed for emergency landing on Delta flight with 281 passengers

They also said Belloisi was carrying an empty tool bag and wore a jacket large enough to hold the cocaine.

The cocaine had a street value of more than $250,000.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR METRO DAILY NEWSLETTER

American was not accused of wrongdoing.

Belloisi’s lawyer David Cohen, from the law firm Cohen Forman Barone, said his client plans to appeal his conviction.

“Given Mr. Belloisi’s personal history, as well as national and district-wide statistics, this was an excessive sentence, far beyond what is necessary to achieve the goals of sentencing,” Cohen said in an interview.

Irizarry on Friday separately rejected Belloisi’s request for an acquittal.

For the latest metro stories, top headlines, breaking news and more, visit nypost.com/metro/