14 Arrested at PSU for major cocaine trafficking ring at 2 fraternities...

[Lion84]

One of the six pack shops on College used to sell white cans of beer with nothing but the letters "BEER" printed on it. That was it. Even at a six pack shop it was like a buck-fifty a six.

Too funny - I bought a sixer there of "Beer" - just a white label and it was the only six pack left in the place.

 

[EricStratton-RushChairman]

D.U. was a huge football/lacrosse house all the way into the early ‘70s, only to fall victim to the post-Vietnam Greek-life lull / decline that lasted into the early 80s ….

I was dismayed to learn of the “Drugs Unlimited“ moniker after I started pledging D.U. as a transfer student in ‘86 … though indeed I heard all the stories about the craziness of the prior 10yrs which secured that reputation .

Witnessed only an occasional isolated in-room weed-event amongst a few brothers during my stint in the House, never anything in the common areas either. Knew of nothing more than that as far as substances go … we were pretty hell bent on turning that reputation around back in the late 80s . Having been at nearly every other house on / off campus back then ~ I knew there was more illicit nonsense going on at probably 45 other houses. Alas , would not have tolerated any of that under our roof. Same with the hazing aspect.

I was right across the street as a brother at Acacia 1985-88!

 

[BobPSU92]

I hope this situation doesn’t harm our university’s pristine reputation.

 

[massimoManca II]

I was right across the street as a brother at Acacia 1985-88!

Was smitten with an AKAK little sister during that time (great gal) … chugged quite a few beers at your parties

 

[gianluca1]

I barely had enough $$ to buy Milwaukee's Best 12 pack as an undergrad...

I think it was $3.25/ six pack at the Chumley's Bottle Shop in 1985.

 

[Catch1lion]

Apparently more than just one Saturday night a year is a white out .

 

[Steve JG]

And we wonder why the academic ranking has nose dived. Well you have this kind of low life rif raf as students.

 

[Steve JG]

We would get $0.99 six packs of Rolling Rock. And I remember this: we’re seemingly out of weed and my roommate finds a baggie full of seeds, carefully cleans them and we end up with a decent stash, enough for a bowl full for each of us. “Time to party!” Good times.

 

[PSU Soupy 615]

So were these competing cartels?

Not since Bloods vs. Crips in SE LA was there such a violent drug rivalry as Sigma Chi vs. DU at PSU.

 

[step.eng69]

That was the name of the operation…

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Fixed the picture for you 94lions

click to enlarge:

 

[NewEra 2026]

For sure. The article said Delta Upsilon was placed under suspension, but Sigma Chi was operating outside the purview of the university. I don't think it matters either way since the AG, IMHO, will seize both houses under the asset forfeiture law. It was more than just a couple dudes being stupid. It was stupidity at the house leadership level.

Yes my understanding is that Sigma Chi was "kicked off campus" a few years ago, so the Sigma Chi alumni brothers figured out a way to keep the Penn State chapter alive outside of the governance of the University.

My fraternity was also "kicked off campus" for bogus reasons a couple of years before Sigma Chi, but my fraternity's national organization would not allow the Penn State chapter to continue outside the University's oversight. We alumni brothers thought about keeping the chapter alive while on Penn State's double-secret probation. Ultimately we figured out that after reinstatement, our fraternity would quickly run afoul of whatever rules Penn State would gin up, so we scrapped the idea. In general, it appears that Penn State wants to make Greek life a thing of the past.

 

[Grant Green]

At least this time no one seems to be making excuses.

Coke heads tend to be brutally honest.

 

[G3624]

Wasn't their a guy on the BOT, that supported this kind of entrepreneurship

 

[PSUForever]

Man are their any "good" fraternities at PSU? I did not attend so really don't know. I think the SAEs are pretty good? My sister who attended in the early 80s seemed to think that at least back then. There was a guy in our neighborhood who was my older sister's age who was an SAE at dear old State and he was a stand up guy.

What about Sigma Nu? My father and uncle were Sigma Nus waaaaay back. Another uncle was an Acacia I believe.

 

[LionJim]

Wasn't Delta

We would get $1.99 six packs of Rolling Rock. And I remember this: we’re seemingly out of weed and my roommate finds a baggie full of seeds, carefully cleans them and we end up with a decent stash, enough for a bowl full for each of us. “Time to party!” Good times.

$1.99 a six pack, my bad.

 

[MtNittany]

I was right across the street as a brother at Acacia 1985-88!

Chi Phi here. Mid 80's.

 

[Big_O]

Too funny - I bought a sixer there of "Beer" - just a white label and it was the only six pack left in the place.

That was generic beer. I used to buy it in Value King grocery stores in NE Ohio. It was brewed by the Pittsburgh Brewing Company.

 

[jimj]

We never should have hired Professor Escobar.

 

[G3624]

That was generic beer. I used to buy it in Value King grocery stores in NE Ohio. It was brewed by the Pittsburgh Brewing Company.

So it was the Iron City that didn't pass the taste test?

 

[jimj]

So it was the Iron City that didn't pass the taste test?

Iron City did lots of custom brewing back in the day. Was a big brewer of Samuel Adams before they opened their own brewery.

 

[BCS PSU]

I hope this situation doesn’t harm our university’s pristine reputation.

I think that it’s pretty safe to say that if this going on at PSU, it also is going at many other schools. Dateline and 48 Hours have made a living on presenting heinous stories resulting from drug use on college campuses. That’s what happens when you turn schools into assembly lines and accept people who just want to get stoned and screw for four or five years until the real world hits them.

 

[Aardvark86]

So it was the Iron City that didn't pass the taste test?

We used to host a cheap beer night at my ( central pa Slac) fraternity. All the beer cans would go in a giant garbage can of ice water. One of my great joys in life was insisting to Pittsburgh area folks that the reason that the ic cans were the only ones to sink was the beer rather than the cans. Used to infuriate them.

 

[DaytonRickster]

For the rest of your lives, good luck finding someone willing to hire you, fellas.

Of those arrested was a father of one of the younger men. Glad they were busted.

 

[DaytonRickster]

I would think if this thing goes to trial that those 2 frats are long gone for awhile at least from PSU. Hazing initiations of cutting and bagging cocaine.... Don't see anyway they stay on campus

Wasn't one frat house off campus? Still, they will bith end up being banned from any association with PSU and their chapters might receive national decertificatoon.

 

[Nitt1300]

More good press for PSU

 

[prt]

I was right across the street as a brother at Acacia 1985-88!

I was a brother at TEP, 95-99. As for DU, they didn’t like us walking across their yard, and we didn’t like them beating up our brothers for walking across their yard.

 

[Tgar]

Blow. It’s back to being cool in school……

 

[SkiSkiSki]

Neither is on campus *

Wow, that was fast!

 

[Bwifan]

Going to be interesting to see if the AG goes to seize the properties if the issues happened at an apartment with frat members not in the actual frat house ...

 

[CVLion]

Those 2 shown were making runs to Philly and bringing back kilos of cocaine at a time.

If they were taking the PA Turnpike, the tolls probably ate all their profits

 

[Nittering Nabob]

Going to be interesting to see if the AG goes to seize the properties if the issues happened at an apartment with frat members not in the actual frat house ...

Perhaps, but the State College apartment owners have far better attorneys than Centre County.

 

[stater02]

I was a DU, you can probably guess my years at Dear Old State by my moniker. We were the football house in the 60s and 70s, then Joe made all players move on campus after one particularly rowdy party.

It became Drugs Unlimited in the 80s. “My” years there really seemed to be focused on improving the Chapter’s reputation, especially fundraising for THON - not a lot of drug use going on from what I saw.

I haven’t really followed the Chapter over the past few decades but I know the house struggled with membership numbers, then seemed to bounce back. Really disappointed to read today’s news.

 

[NittPicker]

Going to be interesting to see if the AG goes to seize the properties if the issues happened at an apartment with frat members not in the actual frat house ...

The article noted the drug packaging took place within the houses. Since the whole operation was condoned by the leadership/management of both places, I think the AG would have a strong argument to seize both premises. It was a criminal operation being run from within both houses with the pledges performing criminal activity to gain acceptance into said operation. "Wanna be in our fraternity?? You need to help us package and distribute drugs".

 

[1995PSUGrad]

When I was a student in the early 90's, there was a guy in one of my classes from Miami. He was always looking for someone to ride with him to Miami. The thing is, he went home to Miami almost every weekend. He would leave after class on Friday and get home late Sunday night or early Monday morning. He would never admit it, but the assumption was that he was bringing drugs back with him.

 

[Roar814]

The article noted the drug packaging took place within the houses. Since the whole operation was condoned by the leadership/management of both places, I think the AG would have a strong argument to seize both premises. It was a criminal operation being run from within both houses with the pledges performing criminal activity to gain acceptance into said operation. "Wanna be in our fraternity?? You need to help us package and distribute drugs".

I really can’t believe how stupid they were to do that with the pledges (now witnesses and informants) lol. Assuming they’re first time offenders - if they just packaged it themselves and the first kid to get caught immediately got a good lawyer, decent chance that both wouldn’t have spent a day in jail nor gotten this publicity.

 

[massimoManca II]

Going to be interesting to see if the AG goes to seize the properties if the issues happened at an apartment with frat members not in the actual frat house ...

D.U. sits on one of the largest fraternity-owned parcels this side of the Mississippi and I can imagine the developers circling the AG’s office like vulture$ …. DU alumni association has spurned offers from developers to sell/relocate over the past 50yrs since being burned by a local church (who I won’t name) that purchased the parcel that went all the way down to Beaver Ave - only for them to flip it to a developer who would build Cedarbrook … you can look at the pic and imagine the monstrosity that would go in there

 

[Tom McAndrew]

For sure. The article said Delta Upsilon was placed under suspension, but Sigma Chi was operating outside the purview of the university. I don't think it matters either way since the AG, IMHO, will seize both houses under the asset forfeiture law. It was more than just a couple dudes being stupid. It was stupidity at the house leadership level.

The article noted the drug packaging took place within the houses. Since the whole operation was condoned by the leadership/management of both places, I think the AG would have a strong argument to seize both premises. It was a criminal operation being run from within both houses with the pledges performing criminal activity to gain acceptance into said operation. "Wanna be in our fraternity?? You need to help us package and distribute drugs".

I’m not a lawyer, and not an expert on forfeiture laws, so this is just my interpretation of a quick investigation. If a home is used by its owners for illegal activity, there is a possibility of it being seized. Whether or not it can be seized is based on the nature of the crime (courts evaluate forfeiture on whether it’s fair and proportional to the offense).

All of the frat houses are owned by corporations (basically, alums of the frat), which rent the rooms to the brothers and the house to the frat. Rental properties can be seized, but the threshold for doing so is somewhat higher than what it is for for a home owned by the offender or the offender’s family. The landlord can claim that they didn’t know about such activities, and that the leases included language which forbade the illegal activities. The extent to which the landlord monitored the property, had zero-tolerance leases, and reported problems to the police factor into whether or not the property can be seized.

In short, it doesn’t appear to be as cut and dry as has been implied.

 

[Nittering Nabob]

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D.U. sits on one of the largest fraternity-owned parcels this side of the Mississippi and I can imagine the developers circling the AG’s office like vulture$ …. DU alumni association has spurned offers from developers to sell/relocate over the past 50yrs since being burned by a local church (who I won’t name) that purchased the parcel that went all the way down to Beaver Ave - only for them to flip it to a developer who would build Cedarbrook … you can look at the pic and imagine the monstrosity that would go in there

State College, Pennsylvania enforces strict building height limits that vary by zoning district. Downtown high-rises are generally capped, with specific overlays restricting tall residential-only buildings to lower limits unless mandatory commercial space is included. Standard residential zones (like R-1) limit homes to 30 feet or two stories, while ongoing zoning rewrites propose nuanced caps ranging from 4 stories in some downtown sectors up to 9 or 11 stories in designated high-density areas. [1, 2, 3]

Zoning and Height Rules

• • Signature Development Overlay: Limits pure student apartment high-rises unless specific commercial integration requirements are met.
  • R-1 Residential Districts: Restricted to a maximum of two stories and 30 feet.
  • General Downtown/Neighborhood Proposals: Under review drafts, heights range from 4 stories in select downtown pockets to higher limits (9 to 11 stories) in targeted zones.
  • Exemptions: Features like chimneys, steeples, flagpoles, and utility towers are typically exempt from standard maximum height caps

 

[RunTheBall]

We made the CBS Evening News!

 

[Psumatt85]

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“We found a pattern of events that showed cutting and bagging cocaine was, for some pledges, an indoctrination into the Delta Upsilon and Sigma Chi fraternities,” Sunday said.

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