Nearly 100 arrested in university sting

Schuyler Colfax · Post by **Schuyler Colfax** » 2008-05-06 05:54pm

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- About 100 people, including students majoring in homeland security and criminal justice, were arrested Tuesday in an undercover drug sting at San Diego State University, officials said.

Among those arrested, 75 were students, one of them a criminal justice major charged with possession of guns and cocaine, authorities said. One student allegedly dealing cocaine was a month short of obtaining a master's degree in homeland security at the California school and worked under campus police as a student community service officer.

Campus police initiated the investigation about a year ago, after a student's fatal overdose in May 2007, said university President Steve Weber. About five months ago, as the investigation evolved, campus police sought and received help from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

There was a second overdose death in February at a fraternity house.

"If proven guilty, these individuals have preyed on students and have ruined hundreds of lives," Weber told reporters. In addition to facing criminal charges, the students have been suspended from school and evicted from campus housing, he said.

Twenty-one people who are not students were arrested recently on a variety of drug charges, officials said.

Damon Mosler, chief of the narcotics division for the San Diego County District Attorney's Office, was surprised by what he described as the dealers' openness about what they were doing.

"They weren't picky about who they sold to," he said, alleging that undercover officers would simply call them and say, " 'Hey, I heard you deal. Will you sell to me?'

"And they did."

Officials say the evidence seized as part of Operation Sudden Fall includes four pounds of cocaine, 50 pounds of marijuana and 350 ecstasy pills. Authorities also took one shotgun, three semiautomatic pistols and $60,000.

In all, authorities confiscated more than $100,000 worth of drugs, Mosler said. Bags of marijuana weighing four or five pounds would sell for $4,000 to $5,000, he said, and a kilogram of cocaine would sell for about $17,000.

Before going to Las Vegas for the weekend, fraternity members involved in the sale of drugs sent text messages to their customers, saying, "We're going to close out our inventory," and inviting them to "buy the cocaine at discounted prices," Mosler said.

After the weekend, they sent another text message saying they were back and ready to do business, Mosler said.

Search warrants were carried out last week on suspects' houses off campus, and search warrants were served Tuesday at on-campus housing.

Mosler described the students as "mid-level distributors" who were selling more than a person might buy for personal use.

He identified Phi Kappa Psi and Theta Chi as the two fraternities involved. In the latter case, firearms were found in the house, he said.

The firearms included semiautomatic 9 mm or .40-caliber handguns and a rifle, Mosler said.

He said the students face charges that include possession for sale and sale of cocaine, ecstasy and marijuana.

DEA agents infiltrated several student drug distribution cells and made more than 130 drug purchases and seizures, a news release said.

Authorities said they infiltrated seven campus fraternities and found that in some, most of the students were aware of drug dealing by fraternity brothers.

Wow.

Havok · Post by **Havok** » 2008-05-06 07:58pm

LOL awesome. So, I wonder if this is going to bring the whole fraternities under suspicion?

Post by **Alyrium Denryle** » 2008-05-06 08:53pm

why is it always phi kappa psi? hehehe... I seem to remember having issues with them this year on ASU campus as well...

Havok · Post by **Havok** » 2008-05-06 08:57pm

Alyrium Denryle wrote:why is it always phi kappa psi? hehehe... I seem to remember having issues with them this year on ASU campus as well...

Over charging you?

Post by **Alyrium Denryle** » 2008-05-06 09:02pm

havokeff wrote:
Alyrium Denryle wrote:why is it always phi kappa psi? hehehe... I seem to remember having issues with them this year on ASU campus as well...
Over charging you?

No, I am in Sigma Phi Beta, the Alpha Chapter of a national Gay/allied fraternity. I only go to straight parties if i have friends that are hosting.

No, IIRC these guys were accused of rape last semester, and nationwide they are pretty bad...

Havok · Post by **Havok** » 2008-05-06 09:10pm

Alyrium Denryle wrote:
havokeff wrote:
Alyrium Denryle wrote:why is it always phi kappa psi? hehehe... I seem to remember having issues with them this year on ASU campus as well...
Over charging you?
No, I am in Sigma Phi Beta, the Alpha Chapter of a national Gay/allied fraternity. I only go to straight parties if i have friends that are hosting.

No, IIRC these guys were accused of rape last semester, and nationwide they are pretty bad...

Uh, yeah. It was a joke.

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2008-05-06 11:53pm

Looks like the local law-enforcement got a bug up their ass and decided to do something about the flagrant drug use on campus. Might have been the posted pricing sheet's that pissed them off.

Trust me when I say even Roberts Divinity University has a drug problem on campus if you define "problem" as people selling drugs in open areas near student housing.

Falkenhayn · Post by **Falkenhayn** » 2008-05-07 12:44am

Mr Bean wrote:Looks like the local law-enforcement got a bug up their ass and decided to do something about the flagrant drug use on campus. Might have been the posted pricing sheet's that pissed them off.

Trust me when I say even Roberts Divinity University has a drug problem on campus if you define "problem" as people selling drugs in open areas near student housing.

The chapter of Alpha Delta at my college recently had their president arrested on possession with intent by an on-campus sting.

Metatwaddle · Post by **Metatwaddle** » 2008-05-07 01:06am

Huh. I'm not at San Diego State, of course, but I know a guy in Theta Chi here. I don't know much about their fraternity, though, except that it's really old.

I love the tone the article takes about the criminal justice and homeland security majors. Shock! Horror! People majoring in law-related fields might actually break the law themselves!

Unless the shock was at the fact that these people, who supposedly know how law enforcement works, were so open about their illicit dealings. What a bunch of morons.

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2008-05-07 09:11am

Metatwaddle wrote:
Unless the shock was at the fact that these people, who supposedly know how law enforcement works, were so open about their illicit dealings. What a bunch of morons.

Meat, this is collage, if you wanted to put a good 20% of the 19-22 year old collage going demographic ask the local police to raid all local collages. Trust me you'll bust at least 100,000 for possession if nothing else and maybe get as many as 20,000 for "distribution" as well.

Know why they don't do it? Except every one in awhile and they give clear signals are raid will occur in the next few days? Because collages can't make as much of a profit if as much as a 1/3 of their student body is in jail on drug charges.

Metatwaddle · Post by **Metatwaddle** » 2008-05-07 10:20am

Mr Bean wrote:
Metatwaddle wrote:
Unless the shock was at the fact that these people, who supposedly know how law enforcement works, were so open about their illicit dealings. What a bunch of morons.
Meat, this is collage, if you wanted to put a good 20% of the 19-22 year old collage going demographic ask the local police to raid all local collages. Trust me you'll bust at least 100,000 for possession if nothing else and maybe get as many as 20,000 for "distribution" as well.

Know why they don't do it? Except every one in awhile and they give clear signals are raid will occur in the next few days? Because collages can't make as much of a profit if as much as a 1/3 of their student body is in jail on drug charges.

Well, colleges aren't for-profit organizations, strictly speaking although you wouldn't know it from my dining and dorm bills. Also, you don't have to educate me about college students' drugs habits; I go to a state school where drugs are as prevalent as anywhere else. What surprises me is how open about it these students were. The cop literally called one of the dealers on the phone and said, "Hey, I heard you deal," and the dealer offered to sell him drugs.

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2008-05-07 10:40am

Metatwaddle wrote:Well, colleges aren't for-profit organizations, strictly speaking although you wouldn't know it from my dining and dorm bills. Also, you don't have to educate me about college students' drugs habits; I go to a state school where drugs are as prevalent as anywhere else. What surprises me is how open about it these students were. The cop literally called one of the dealers on the phone and said, "Hey, I heard you deal," and the dealer offered to sell him drugs.

Let me quote a dead man

"Children there's a place and a time for everything, and that place is called Collage"

I spent Sophomore year living between Duke University and the University of North Carolina. Drug use was common place, for fuck sake I saw folks with Bong's sitting on benches inside the quad's of the Duke University Medical campus.

Again, it's collage, there are drugs there, it's pretty much a given. Hell I bet you twenty bucks that I could go to this collage in question today despite the raid and still within a few hours find some-one to buy weed from at a minimum.