14 people have been charged in a Penn State fraternity cocaine-trafficking ring
The charges allege students packaged and distributed cocaine primarily from two off-campus fraternity houses.
Fourteen people have been charged in a cocaine trafficking case at Pennsylvania State University, the state attorney general’s office announced Monday.
The drug ring involved students’ purchasing large quantities of cocaine from Philadelphia and New York, cutting and packaging it at two fraternity houses, and distributing it to their classmates, prosecutors said.
The alleged ring was active from 2023 to 2024, when all but one of the defendants were students at Penn State. The other defendant is the father of one student, and he was charged with evidence tampering and hindering law enforcement’s investigation. At least four of those charged are still students at Penn State.
“This was a coordinated and highly profitable drug-trafficking crew revolving around two senior members of the fraternities, other fraternity brothers, and pledges,” said Attorney General Dave Sunday in a statement. “According to the evidence uncovered, cutting and packaging cocaine was, for some pledges, an indoctrination into the fraternities,”
The State College Police Department began investigating in September 2024, and used informants to purchase drugs on several occasions, according to a criminal complaint.
The two key suppliers for the group, Agostino Abbatiello, 24, and Thomas Robinson, 23, allegedly made regular trips to Philly and New York to acquire large quantities of cocaine. After Robinson was arrested, he told State College police he purchased cocaine from Abbatiello, including as much as one kilogram for $22,000 at a time, according to the complaint. Abbatiello eventually became known as the main dealer for cocaine on campus, it said.
The cocaine was packaged for distribution primarily at the off-campus Delta Upsilon and Sigma Chi fraternity houses, according to the complaint. Penn State has placed Delta Upsilon on interim suspension while the university’s Office of Student Accountability and Conflict Response investigates. Sigma Chi is not a registered student organization and receives no support from Penn State, the university said in a statement.
“We are horrified by these serious allegations against current and former students,” said Andrea Dowhower, Penn State’s vice president for student affairs. “Criminal activity, including hazing, such as this has no place at our institution, and we will cooperate with law enforcement in any way we can. We will continue to enhance our efforts around health and safety and hazing educational efforts for all our organizations.”
Abbatiello, Robinson, and three other defendants are charged with felony conspiracy, possession with intention to manufacture or deliver a controlled substance, and other related charges. Eight defendants are charged with misdemeanor drug possession. Lawyers for Abbatiello and Robinson were not listed in court records.
Over the past decade, Penn State’s fraternities and their hazing rituals have been a source of campus misconduct and serious legal violations. In 2024, two fraternity leaders were sentenced to two to four months in prison for their role in the 2017 death of Timothy Piazza, a 19-year old Penn State student who died following a hazing incident while pledging Beta Theta Pi.
Piazza’s parents helped push for the successful passage of the federal “Stop Campus Hazing Act,” which requires institutions of higher education participating in federal student aid programs to report hazing incidents.
More recently, in April, Penn State suspended one fraternity for at least four years after it investigated reports of hazing. Since 2017, the university has fully suspended five fraternities, while four others are technically suspended by the university, but continue to operate with the support of their parent organizations.
