FEDS: DRUG SALES NOT REPORTED TO SOCIAL SECURITY

Man Accused of Being a Drug Dealer Now Also Accused of Hiding Drug Income

An accused drug dealer has been charged with defrauding the federal
government by collecting welfare benefits without revealing his
income from drug sales.

Van Williams, 57, of 4371 Olympus Heights Drive, Onondaga, pleaded
innocent this week to charges that he defrauded the Social Security
Administration by failing to disclose that he was working as a drug
dealer since 1995 while he collected monthly benefits. Williams
applied for Social Security benefits by saying a knee injury left him
unable to work.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa Fletcher said she wasn't aware of
another case in which an accused drug dealer was charged with fraud
on accusations he failed to disclose to the government that he was
working as a drug trafficker.

"Technically, it's considered self-employment," she said.

Williams was indicted in March on charges of conspiring with eight
others to sell cocaine, money-laundering, defrauding the federal
government and illegal weapons possession. He had already been
indicted on the drug and weapons charges. The indictment lists these
properties of Williams as proceeds of crime that should be forfeited:
$347,850 in cash in a safe deposit box; $79,335 in cash found in a
drop ceiling in his home; the contents of nine bank accounts; a 1992
Jeep Cherokee; a 1999 Lexus RX300 sport utility vehicle; a 1999
Mercedes-Benz ML430 SUV; a pro-stock nitrous oxide dragster bearing
the name "Mission Accomplished"; three guns; and three homes in the
Syracuse area.

Williams was convicted in 1980 of selling heroin and served three
years in prison. He was convicted in 1990 of possessing cocaine and
served another three years in prison. "It boils down to greed,"
Fletcher said. "He'd been arrested and convicted and sent to prison
twice for it. He had his house on Onondaga Hill, he had his Social
Security, his wife had a job. But it just wasn't enough."

Williams' lawyer, Richard Priest, said the case started out in state
court until the large amounts of cash turned up. That got the
attention of federal authorities, he said.

Priest said the fraud charges pose a minimal threat to Williams in
comparison with the drug charges, for which he would face more than
10 years in prison if convicted.

Williams is being held in jail without bail.