Pennsylvania’s attorney general on Monday charged 13 former and current Penn State students with felonies and misdemeanors related to a cocaine trafficking operation that he said involved packaging the drug at fraternity houses and distributing it to students.
Six of the defendants are current students, Wyatt DuBois, a spokesman for Penn State, said Tuesday morning.
Four defendants face charges of felony corrupt organizations and conspiracy, among other offenses, while a fifth is charged with felony conspiracy and other crimes. Eight others were charged with misdemeanor offenses, like possession, according to the grand jury indictment.
A 14th person, the father of a student, was charged with tampering with evidence and hindering the investigation.
Two of the defendants, Agostino Abbatiello and Thomas Robinson, were the main suppliers of the drugs, according to Dave Sunday, the attorney general.
Philip Masorti, who is listed as Mr. Abbatiello’s lawyer on court documents, did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. It was unclear whether Mr. Robinson or his father had legal representation.
Making regular trips to Philadelphia and New York to acquire drugs, Mr. Sunday said at a news conference on Monday that they brought back “large amounts of cocaine” to State College, Pa., in 2023 and 2024.
The cocaine was then packaged mainly at the Sigma Chi and Delta Upsilon fraternity houses near the Penn State University campus and distributed primarily to students attending the university, the district attorney said.
“This was an upper-level trafficking organization for this region in Pennsylvania,” Mr. Sunday said on Monday.
Members of the Sigma Chi and Delta Upsilon fraternity houses helped package the cocaine, he added, sometimes as part of the initiation process for new members. The investigation, which is continuing, did not find drugs being packaged on campus, Mr. Sunday said. He did not say on Monday whether hazing charges would be added.
“The actual drug dealing was largely from friend to friend, fraternity brother to fraternity brother, acquaintance to acquaintance, and at fraternity houses and or during parties or social engagements,” Mr. Sunday said at the news conference.
The defendants facing felony charges were arraigned on Monday morning. Mr. Abbatiello, who failed to appear for his arraignment on Monday, surrendered Tuesday morning and was denied bail.
Penn State administrators suspended the university’s chapter of Delta Upsilon on Monday as they began an investigation. Mr. DuBois said the university “has no authority to sanction” Sigma Chi, because it operates without official approval or recognition from Penn State. But the university still holds individual students there accountable for misconduct, he said.
The executive director of the Delta Upsilon International Fraternity, Justin Kirk, said in a statement that “the individuals associated with Delta Upsilon have either been expelled, suspended or resigned” from the fraternity.
Sigma Chi’s executive director, Michael Church, said that the three members of its fraternity charged in the case had been suspended, as had the Penn State chapter. He said that the organization would investigate whether the allegations involved just individual conduct, or organized chapter activity.
“This conduct is an egregious violation of our values and has no place in our fraternity, community, or society,” Mr. Church said on Tuesday.
“We are horrified by these serious allegations against current and former students,” Andrea Dowhower, Penn State’s vice president for student affairs, said in a statement on Monday. She added, “We will cooperate with law enforcement in any way we can.”
Law enforcement officers tracked the men and learned how the cocaine was obtained, packaged and sold as early as January 2023, according to the grand jury indictment.
Beginning in September 2024, law enforcement officers used a confidential informant to buy cocaine from a source linked to the two fraternity houses, according to the grand jury indictment.
“What we wanted to do is make sure that we took the time to arrest all of these individuals,” Mr. Sunday said at the news conference, “so that we could do our best to root out this criminal organization to stop it from being able to continue to deal cocaine in the future.”
Mr. Sunday said that Thomas Robinson’s father, Paul Robinson, “took steps to conceal evidence, including a safe containing drugs and cash, and obstruct this investigation.”
