No one likes to admit it, but drugs on
college campuses are more prevalent than you’d think. In addition to marijuana and the study drug Adderal, you can find cocaine, LSD, and even meth. Often, students turn into student-dealers, making money to pay for college by selling drugs to fellow students. Of course, not all of them get away with it, and some of them get caught in quite a dramatic fashion. These drug busts are among the most impressive in college history, including nearly a half a million dollars in LSD from one freshman, and a drug dealing RA.
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In 2008, 75 students were arrested in a drug bust at San Diego State University, following a year-long investigation and months-long infiltration dubbed Operation Sudden Fall. The investigation was sparked by the cocaine- and ethanol-intoxicated death of a 19-year-old student. Undercover officers blended in at SDSU frat parties on Fraternity Row and Fraternity Circle for about six months, becoming regulars by showing up at student hangouts, text messaging new friends, and hanging out on campus. In their time on campus, they collected evidence of drug use and dealing. Arrests were made, including a 19-year-old model student, a master’s student just a month away from his degree in homeland security, and a criminal justice student who, as he was arrested, asked officers "if this would hurt his chances for a law enforcement career." We’re guessing that frat parties now check for student IDs at the door.
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Often, students don’t even have to leave their dorms to find drug dealers, as evidenced by Operation Ivy League, a bust that arrested a group of Columbia students selling drugs out of dorm rooms and frat houses. The five students arrested sold cocaine, marijuana, ecstasy, Adderall, and LSD, each specializing in a certain drug. Over five months, undercover officers purchased nearly $11,000 worth of drugs from the dealer group, all in the frat houses and dorms. One of the group told his arresting officers, "I just sell it to pay tuition." The defendants had been model students, serving on the Engineering Student Council and competing on the fencing team before heading off to jail.
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Some dorms have drug dealers while others have far more entrepreneurial students who go so far as to create the drug itself. At Georgetown University, a clandestine meth lab was discovered right in the dorms, with several pieces of suspected contraband. The meth lab was not active, but items used to make DMT remained. The entire dorm had to be evacuated, as meth labs can be quite dangerous. Hazmat teams cleared the room before allowing students back into their dorm rooms.
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As part of a bust up of a trail of cocaine dealers in Plattsburgh, New York, officers were brought to the campus of Plattsburgh State, just feet from Plattsburgh City High School. An impressive amount of drugs were found on just one person, Keith Lanning, a 21-year-old senior. He had a half kilo of cocaine in a duffel bag stored in a locker — its value was estimated to be $120,000. The case was cracked by complaints and tipsters. Lanning received three years to life in a state prison for his felony guilty plea to second-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance.
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As America’s third largest university with 53,000 students, The University of Central Florida is a rich market for drug dealers. One student, an environmental sciences major, distributed $90,000 worth of marijuana to student dealers every week. His house was raided, and six of his dealers were arrested along with him. Other students were not shocked by the presence of drug dealing and distribution on their campus, commenting, "It’s a big money-making opportunity. There are lots of students here. Lots of them use drugs. It’s a money-making opportunity. It’s a business." Officers were pleased with their crackdown, and hopeful that the pre-spring break timing would cut down on the drugs available for students visiting from other parts of the country, but UCF students weren’t so sure, assuring reporters that "somebody else will probably just come up and fill his shoes."
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Fourteen ISU students were arrested on drug charges right before final exams in the spring semester of 2010. Of all the stresses of finals, we’re betting the students didn’t have potential jail time on their minds. But they were arrested nonetheless, all for their involvement in the sale of drugs on the university campus. All but one of the students had their bonds reduced, and one in particular successfully argued for a reduction based on a clean criminal history and a need to study for finals. Perhaps the most impressive part of this takedown was the number of students involved, nearly all of them arrested for either delivery or possession with intent to deliver marijuana, an apparent campus favorite.
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Most students expect their RA to be a moral compass, offering advice for doing well in college and getting along well with life in the dorms. But RA Gregory Sable fell short of being a trustworthy student resource. After Sable sold low-quality cocaine to student Michael Smith, Smith came up with a plan to teach him a lesson: a robbery in which Sable was tied up and pistol whipped. When Sable called police, his stash of cocaine and cash were discovered by police, leading to drug charges for Sable, and robbery, weapons and drug offenses for Michael Smith and his friends involved with the incident.
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Would you still sell drugs if you thought you might get caught? Lt. Roy Acree thinks you’ll stop, which is why a massive drug sting was planned at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Rather than taking out dealers and distributors one by one, the university did it in one fell swoop to send a message to students selling drugs. After an eight-month undercover investigation, the police department arrested 21 students on drug charges. The arrests were timed so that disciplinary charges could be resolved before the end of the semester. Although he recognized fighting drugs on campus as a losing battle, Lieutenant Acree vowed to "continue to diligently investigate any type of drug activity."
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At the University of Mississippi, one family was making the sale of drugs a family affair. After a 10 month investigation, University of Mississippi brother and sister sophomores Joseph Coates and Maryalice Coates were charged with the sale of ecstasy. Their father, Northwest Rankin High School Football Coach David Coates, was arrested for possession of marijuana with intent to sell. In addition to the Coates family, three other arrests were made, including sophomore Nimer Fino and former student Mary Jane Miranda.
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One student put his chemical engineering education to work for him, but it didn’t pay off quite the way he thought it would. A chemical engineering major at the University of Houston, Clarke Lane Denton was planning to make a big payday on campus with about a half a million dollars worth of LSD in his dorm room. Denton sold LSD to undercover officers, who searched his room and recovered 250,000 hits of LSD with an estimated street value of $500,000. Only 18 at the time, he was charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute. Friends said Clarke was "a real smart guy" with a promising future.
Taken From
Accredited Online Colleges
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