A former American Airlines aircraft mechanic was sentenced Friday to nine years in prison after being convicted of trying to smuggle cocaine by hiding it under the cockpit of a plane bound for New York from Jamaica.
Paul Beloisi, 56, of Smithtown, New York, was convicted in May 2023 of conspiracy to possess cocaine, conspiracy to import cocaine and importing cocaine and sentenced by U.S. District Judge Dora Irizarry in Brooklyn.
The case began with a routine search of American Airlines Flight 1349, which arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on February 4, 2020. Mr. Beloasi was a native of Montego Bay, Jamaica, and had worked as an American mechanic for more than 20 years.
According to prosecutors, customs agents found 10 blocks of cocaine weighing 25.6 pounds in an electronics compartment under the cockpit and replaced them with fake blocks sprayed with a substance that glows under a special black light.
Beloisi is said to have driven up to the plane in a car and entered the electronics room before it took off again.
The prosecutor said officers interviewed the defendant and his gloves glowed under a black light, indicating he was handling fake bricks.
They also said The eagle was carrying He was carrying an empty tool bag and wearing a jacket large enough to hold cocaine.
The street value of the cocaine was more than $250,000.
The Americans were not accused of any wrongdoing.
Beloisi's lawyer, David Cohen of the law firm Cohen Forman Barone, said his client plans to appeal the conviction.
“Given Mr. Beloisi's personal history and the national and district-wide statistics, this is an excessive sentence that far exceeds what is necessary to achieve the sentencing objectives,” Cohen said in an interview.
Judge Irizarry on Friday separately rejected Berowasi's request for acquittal.
