The alleged cocaine ring uncovered at Penn State fraternity houses has drawn attention to a broader shift in drug use that local officials say is playing out across Centre County and beyond.
Last month, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office announced the arrest of 14 men, most of them fraternity brothers, accused of running a large cocaine operation out of off-campus houses. Court documents identify Agostino Abbatiello, 24, as the alleged ringleader. He posted $250,000 bail and was released from jail on Sept. 2 after more than two weeks in custody. He is scheduled for arraignment on Sept. 30.
Centre County Drug and Alcohol Administrator Catherine Arbogast said the case fits a pattern local officials have been tracking for some time, in which young people are increasingly seeking out stimulants rather than the opioids that have dominated public attention in recent years.
“What is being reported to us is that we have gone from just seeing opiates and opiate derivatives to also seeing more stimulant use,” Arbogast said.
According to Arbogast, the demand isn’t limited to cocaine or prescription stimulants like Adderall.
“We’re seeing methamphetamines, we’re seeing a variety of stimulants, we’re seeing prescription meds, we’re seeing synthetic medications—things that are being cooked up in laboratories,” she said.
Investigators in the Penn State case allege that fraternity pledges were coerced into cutting and packing cocaine as part of initiation rituals. Arbogast said that kind of mixing process is especially dangerous because buyers often have no idea what they are actually consuming.
“When people are buying drugs, they really don’t know what they’re getting because drugs are mixed, there are combinations of drugs, and so when they take something, they might be getting a stimulant, they might be getting an opioid, which is more of a depressant, or they might be getting a combination of the two,” she said.
Arbogast emphasized that the concern extends well past the Penn State campus and college-age drug users generally.
“Stimulant use, opiate use, drug use is a pattern that is happening in rural communities across the state of Pennsylvania and across the United States,” Arbogast said. “It’s not something that just happens in big cities. It’s not something that just happens in more urban areas.”
The criminal case against Abbatiello and the other men accused in the alleged fraternity drug ring remains ongoing, with the next court date set for the end of the month.
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