Penn State fraternity cocaine ring suspects making first court appearance since indictment

Several suspects indicted in what authorities have called a "highly-profitable" cocaine trafficking ring operating out of two Penn State University fraternities are expected to make their first court appearances today. 

Agostino Abbatiello, Thomas Robinson, Paul Robinson, Muhammad Huraibi, Robert Zanolla, and Seth Beardsley are expected for preliminary hearings and court proceedings at the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday morning, several weeks after being charged for their alleged roles in a cocaine distribution ring that authorities say spanned a time period from around 2023 to 2024.

Fourteen individuals, nearly all former or current Penn State students, have been charged in connection with the alleged drug dealing operation. 

Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday said at the time of the charges being filed that pledges at the off-campus fraternity homes of Sigma Chi and Delta Upsilon cut and packaged the cocaine, including some who did it as an "indoctrination" into the fraternities. The drugs were brought to the university in State College from Philadelphia and New York, investigators said. 

Agostino Abbatiello, 24, the alleged ringleader of the operation, has been denied bail since he surrendered to authorities last month.

Thomas Robinson, 23, whom investigators described as being "a rung below" Abbatiello in the operation, was arrested in December 2024 after allegedly selling cocaine to confidential informants six times in the late months of that year. In the wake of his arrest, Robinson had his admission to the New England School of Law withdrawn. 

Paul Robinson, 59, a prominent attorney at a Pittsburgh law firm and father of Thomas Robinson, was charged with helping conceal evidence related to the operation. He is accused of hiding a safe containing drugs and cash.  

An attorney for the elder Robinson previously said he and his client planned to challenge the evidence that the state planned to present in the case.