Schenectady man who traded drugs for food stamps sentenced
SCHENECTADY, N.Y. (NEWS10)-- A 24-year-old Schenectady man was sentenced on Wednesday to a year in prison for distributing drugs in exchange for food stamps. Omar Alaidrus was charged in July 2024.
The U.S. Attorney's Office said Alaidrus admitted to exchanging fentanyl, and sometimes cash, for food stamps at a Schenectady deli owned by his parents in 2023. Officials said on March 29, 2024, Alaidrus sold a police officer posed as a customer fentanyl pills and Xanax after charging the officer's electronic benefits card for $201.15.
After charging the card, Alaidrus took out and kept $100 from the cash register, providing the officer with drugs. In addition to his prison sentence, a judge ordered Alaidrus to pay $316,975 in restitution to the Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service and three years of probation.