Eric Hines, 28, of Watervliet, was sentenced in Albany to 10 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to possessing fentanyl with intent to distribute. WNYT.com NewsChannel 13, citing the U.S. Attorney’s Office, reported that the case involved a proposed Dec. 17, 2024, sale of 4,000 pills for $8,500. Hines was arrested before the transaction was completed.
WNYT reported that officers recovered pills weighing more than 300 grams when they arrested Hines; tests showed the pills contained fentanyl.
Investigation Centered on Cohoes and Watervliet
The investigation that led to the case covered Cohoes and Watervliet, WNYT reported.
Hines was arrested before the proposed handoff. He later pleaded guilty to possessing fentanyl with intent to distribute.
Statewide overdose context
The available figures provide statewide context, not an Albany County-specific trend. According to the New York State Department of Health, the share of opioid overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids other than methadone—a proxy for fentanyl—increased from 30.8 percent in 2015 to 92.3 percent in 2022. Separately, drug-involved overdose deaths among New York State residents rose from 3,617 in 2019 to 4,965 in 2020, the department reported.
A Separate Schenectady Case Shows Steeper Stakes
Fentanyl prosecutions elsewhere in the Capital Region illustrate how much harsher penalties can get when a death is involved. In a separate case out of Schenectady, Kristoffer Jackson, 39, has been indicted for distributing fentanyl and cocaine leading to a fatal overdose, as noted by WNYT.com NewsChannel 13.
If convicted, Jackson faces 20 years to life in prison and supervised release of at least three years, a far steeper range than the sentence Hines received. The two cases are not connected, but together they underscore how fentanyl trafficking charges across the region can carry dramatically different consequences depending on whether a sale is linked to a death.
