Cook — indicted in Superior Court on five felony counts — is receiving SNAP benefits from the state Department of Transitional Assistance and swiping his state-issued EBT card at grocery stores in Kissimmee, more than a thousand miles from the state that funds them. The DTA, remarkably, says its hands are tied: federal rules prohibit the agency from cutting off SNAP eligibility for someone with pending criminal charges.

Cook was working as Healey's Western Massachusetts deputy director in October when State Police intercepted a package containing nearly eight kilograms — about eighteen pounds — of cocaine shipped directly to the governor's Springfield office. He was arrested at the scene and initially held without bail. A Hampden County grand jury indicted him on trafficking cocaine, drug conspiracy, and firearms and ammunition counts. Healey immediately fired him, calling the allegations "a major breach of public trust" and "unacceptable."

Kissimmee, where Cook is now swiping his state-issued card, is the beating heart of Walt Disney World's tourist economy — the sort of sunny Florida paradise the average Massachusetts SNAP recipient dreams of but only imagines. A single-day ticket to the Magic Kingdom currently runs $130 to $200. A four-day, four-park Park Hopper pass for a family of four can push past $2,000. Off-property hotels in Kissimmee typically go for $150 to $400 a night, with private vacation rentals a common option for extended stays. A week at Walt Disney World for a family of four routinely tops $5,000 to $10,000 — before flights from the Northeast, which add another $300 to $500 per person round-trip in the summer.

Disney's own resorts are another galaxy of luxury. Wilderness Lodge, a deluxe lakeside property on Bay Lake, starts around $500 a night for a standard room and climbs past $3,000 a night in peak season for the Copper Creek Cascade Cabins — two-bedroom overwater cabins with private hot tubs and boat docks.

This is not Cook's first taxpayer windfall since his October arrest. In January, it emerged that Healey's office had "mistakenly" cut Cook a $31,000 contract buyout after firing him for cause — money he was not entitled to as an employee dismissed over pending felony charges. "Look, I'm really upset about that. That was a mistake, it's unacceptable, and every effort is being done to make sure that doesn't happen again," Healey told reporters at the time. She added her administration would install "the right guardrails, the right measures" to prevent a repeat. The state, of course, has done nothing to get the $31,000 back.

Cook was released in March on $25,000 bail — reduced from the original $75,000.

Which is how the man accused of running an eighteen-pound cocaine shipment through the governor's Springfield office ends up sitting a thousand miles from the state that pays for his groceries, swiping his state-issued EBT card at Florida supermarkets steps from Cinderella's Castle.