#Husband of aide to Speaker Carl Heastie jailed for coke smuggling

The husband of a top aide to state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie is going to prison for at least five years for a cocaine smuggling conspiracy, officials said Thursday.

Orlando Dennis, 31, who is married to Heastie’s Chief of Staff Jevonni Brooks-Dennis, pleaded guilty Thursday as part of a plea deal to one count each of conspiracy to import cocaine and tax evasion. He faces a mandatory minimum of five years and a maximum of 45 years in prison when he’s sentenced May 6. He has to pay tax restitution of $136,311.

Dennis was charged last year in the Eastern District of New York with conspiring with two JFK baggage handlers to smuggle three kilos of cocaine into the country from Jamaica.

Brooks-Dennis has not been charged, but prosecutors alleged that the couple lived an “opulent lifestyle” that included shopping sprees at Christian Louboutin and a bank account with hundreds of thousands in cash.

“The defendant and his wife’s financial records also reflect extravagant purchases from luxury designers and significant, unexplained wealth,” Brooklyn federal prosecutors wrote in a filing last year.

Dennis, a delivery truck driver earning $25,000 a year, and his wife had blown $19,000 at Christian Louboutin, according to prosecutors.

“As he stated in today’s plea, Orlando takes full acceptance and sole responsibility for his actions,” said his lawyer Jason Goldman.