An American Airlines mechanic has been sentenced to nine years in prison for attempting to smuggle half a million dollars’ worth of cocaine into the US.
Paul Belloisi, 56, of New York was convicted last year and just sentenced for arranging the import of cocaine from Jamaica.
The shipment was discovered in a compartment of a plane that just landed from Jamaica during a routine search at New York JFK.
Custom officers found 10 cocaine bricks and swapped them for fake bricks in 2020.
Officers then kept watch on the plane and saw Belloisi enter the electronics compartment beneath the cockpit.
Belloisi had worked as an American mechanic for over 20 years.
Belloisi was wearing a work jacket with cutouts enabling him to store the cocaine bricks.
The cocaine had a street value of over $250,000.
