Prosecutors claim that more than a dozen fraternity members from Penn State were apprehended for operating a sophisticated cocaine trafficking network out of two different fraternities, forcing young pledges to cut and bag the drugs before selling them to students.
A staggering 14 persons were charged in relation to the multi-state trafficking enterprise, including a Long Island native at the “very top of the food chain.” Nine of the accused are alumni, one is a father, and four are current Penn State students.
According to reports, the fraternities Sigma Chi and Delta Upsilon worked with vendors in Philadelphia and New York to traffic in the coke, which was mostly distributed to Penn State students.
In a statement released on Monday, Attorney General Dave Sunday stated:
“This was a coordinated and highly-profitable drug-trafficking crew revolving around two senior members of the fraternities, other fraternity brothers, and pledges,”
“In fact, according to the evidence uncovered, cutting and packaging cocaine was, for some pledges, an indoctrination into the fraternities.”
Agostino Abbatiello, 24, of Westbury, Nassau County, was “at the very top of the chain,” Sunday said during a press conference on Monday.
The inquiry revealed that Abbatiello and Thomas Robinson, members of the Sigma Chi and Delta Upsilon fraternities, respectively, were the primary suppliers in the scam. Between 2023 and 2024, Abbatiello regularly traveled to New York to obtain substantial amounts of cocaine.
According to court filings, Abbatiello allegedly supplied cocaine as recently as February 2026.
