An American Airlines mechanic was found guilty of smuggling more than 25 pounds of cocaine into Kennedy Airport inside an aircraft electronic compartment.
A jury convicted Paul Belloisi, 55, on Tuesday afternoon, after a one-week trial in Brooklyn Federal Court.
Officers found the drugs, 10 bricks in total, in tan insulation blanket in the underside of the cockpit of American Airlines Flight 1349 on Feb. 4, 2020. The plane arrived at JFK from Montego Bay, Jamaica.
Federal agents replaced the cocaine stashed in the plane in Jamaica with dummy bricks marked with a luminescent spray. Then, they watched from a distance to see who’d get them.
Belloisi entered the compartment about 45 minutes before the plane was scheduled to take off again, and after he tripped an electronic transponder, the feds swooped in. His gloves glowed under a black light, meaning he had handled the bricks.
The Hicksville, N.Y. resident worked in a different part of the airport, and had no business on that aircraft, according to prosecutors.
After his arrest, his phone received a string of missed calls from someone named “Lester,” who he’d been texting coded messages to the night before, according to court filings. “Lester,” who was using a burner phone, made most of those calls from just outside the airport.
Prosecutors put the street value of the drugs at $285,000 to $320,000.
“This corrupt airline mechanic not only abused his position of trust and undermined the security of a vital border crossing in our district, but was also willing to potentially endanger the safety of travelers as well as the community,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said.
Belloisi was convicted on charges of conspiring to possess cocaine, conspiring to import cocaine, and importing cocaine, and could face up to 20 years behind bars.
He remains free on $300,000 bond until his sentencing.
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply