How an American Airlines mechanic nearly smuggled 25 pounds of cocaine worth $250,000 into the US

• A judge sentenced former American Airlines mechanic Paul Belloisi to 9 years for smuggling cocaine.
• Police found cocaine worth $250,000 in the electronics compartment of an American Airlines plane.

A former American Airlines mechanic nearly managed to smuggle 25 pounds of cocaine into the United States worth a quarter of a million dollars — until the flight was marked for a random search.

A federal judge in New York sentenced Paul Belloisi, 56, to nine years in prison Friday for charges of conspiracy to possess and import cocaine.

Police discovered 10 bricks containing over 25 pounds of cocaine in the electronics compartment of an American Airlines flight at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City in February 2020. According to the Justice Department, the plane was selected for a routine search after arriving from Montego Bay, Jamaica.

In their investigation, police removed the cocaine and replaced the bricks with fake ones covered in a substance that glows when viewed under a black light, the Justice Department said. While surveilling the plane, they saw Belloisi pull himself into the electronics compartment. When police confronted Belloisi, they shined the black light on his hands and saw a glow that indicated he had moved the bricks, according to the press release.

Belloisi was also carrying a tool bag, and the lining of his jacket had "cutouts sufficiently large enough to hold the bricks," the Justice Department said.

The street value of the cocaine was more than $250,000, police said.

In court, Belloisi's attorneys said there was no evidence that he ever participated in any drug trafficking conspiracy and that the prison sentence was too harsh, according to The Washington Post.

"The sentencing went far beyond what is necessary," attorney David Jason Cohen told the outlet.

American Airlines did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Belloisi's sentencing.