NEW YORK, Sept 6 (Reuters) - 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

U.S. District Judge Dora Irizarry in Brooklyn, after being

convicted in May 2023 of conspiring to possess cocaine,

conspiring to import cocaine and importing cocaine.

A lawyer for Belloisi had no immediate comment. American was

not accused of wrongdoing.

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.

Prosecutors said custom officers found 10 cocaine bricks

weighing 25.6 pounds (11.6 kg) 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. 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.

Irizarry on Friday also rejected Belloisi's request for an

acquittal.

She wrote that jurors could infer beyond a reasonable doubt

that Belloisi knew the cocaine was aboard flight 1349 and

"intentionally conspired and aided in its importation."

In a statement, U.S. Attorney Breon Peace in Brooklyn said

Belloisi's conduct posed "a serious threat to the security of a

vital border crossing in our district and our transportation

infrastructure."