Mercedes Reshard New was seen on social media flaunting his extravagant lifestyle, including flying on private jets, posing with high-end vehicles, handling stacks of cash, and calling people “broke motherf*ckers.”
Vice President JD Vance announced on Wednesday that as part of a SNAP fraud crackdown, Atlanta social media influencer Mercedes Reshard New, also known as “Shawty Dred,” was arrested on federal charges for allegedly carrying out a $4 million SNAP fraud scheme.
“The simple fact is, this is a man that we have connected to $4.4 million in fraud against the SNAP program. A guy who is quite literally taking food from the mouths of children so that he can enrich himself,” Vance said.
Per the Department of Justice, New allegedly controlled over 350 fraudulent SNAP accounts that used stolen identities between January 2020 and July 2026. He allegedly had SNAP EBT cards mailed to various Atlanta-area addresses, and applied for his business, Shawty Dred LLC, to become an authorized SNAP retailer.
Between April 2024 and November 2025, he allegedly fraudulently obtained EBT cards and a point-of-sale device, which investigators say was used to steal over $660,000 in SNAP benefits. His store authorization was revoked in November of 2025.
Around two weeks after the store authorization was revoked, police arrested New for allegedly selling SNAP benefits at an Atlanta-area store. 14 EBT cards that were issued to other people were seized. In the wake of the cards being seized, New had replacement cards sent to other Atlanta-area addresses.
The DOJ said that over the course of the scheme, around $4.6 million in SNAP benefits were transferred to fraudulently established beneficiary accounts controlled by New. The EBT cards were used to pull around $4 million from the accounts.
New was seen on social media flaunting his extravagant lifestyle, including flying on private jets, posing with high-end vehicles, handling stacks of cash, and calling people “broke motherf*ckers.”
He was indicted by a federal grand jury on 46 counts of mail fraud, 15 counts of aggravated identity theft, and one count each of SNAP fraud and illegal transactions with access devices. He was arrested on October 13.
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