WASHINGTON — A judge sentenced Aidriss Saydi on Friday to 20 years in prison for distributing cocaine and brandishing a firearm.
Officials said Saydi, 36, was one of the “largest drug dealers in Northern Virginia over the past decade,” and traveled to other states with hundreds of thousands in cash to purchase narcotics that were later shipped to him.
Police said over the course of the conspiracy, Saydi used dozens of people to get drug shipments for him. He later purchased his own plane to carry drugs to Virginia.
“In April of 2018, after fear that law enforcement was closing in on him, Saydi ordered a co-conspirator to hide close to a kilogram of cocaine, 30 pounds of marijuana, and a stolen handgun, all of which were later found by law enforcement,” Joshua Stueve, the director of communications for the Eastern District of Virginia wrote in a release. “When the buried contraband could not be found, Saydi repeatedly beat his co-conspirator with another weapon, fearing that his co-conspirator had stolen them from him.”
Saydi agreed to forfeit $1 million and multiple vehicles as part of his sentence.
