Feds: Schenectady raid nets man in U.S. illegally

SCHENECTADY — A Tuesday evening raid on a Broadway apartment resulted in the arrest of an El Salvadoran man who has repeatedly entered the country illegally, according to authorities.

Agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided the apartment at 1835 Broadway at about 8 p.m. and arrested Efrain Diaz Alachan on a federal charge of re-entry of a previously removed alien.

Witnesses reported that the raid included loud bangs, believed to be flash-bang devices that disorient the occupants of buildings that police are entering.

Alachan, 46, appeared in federal court in Albany on Wednesday afternoon. Prosecutors sought to have him held in jail. Alachan’s attorney did not request a hearing on the issue, and Alachan was ordered held.

No further charges were filed as a result of the raid.

Authorities had been aware of Alachan’s presence in Schenectady since September, when he was discovered living at 1835 Broadway, Apartment 4, “as the result of an ongoing investigation regarding criminal street gang activity,” states the federal complaint against Alachan, prepared by an ICE deportation officer.

The complaint does not detail the gang investigation further, only noting that Alachan was not a target of that investigation. The gang investigation was also not referenced in his appearance Wednesday afternoon.

Alachan has been removed from the United States on multiple prior occasions dating to 2006, according to the complaint. In 2011, he was arrested in Colonie on an aggravated driving while intoxicated charge and was discovered by federal authorities to have been removed five years earlier, records show. He was sentenced to 14 months in prison in 2013 and another 15 months in prison after another illegal re-entry in 2015.

Alachan faces up to 10 years in prison, if convicted.

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