2008 Woodie Awards
Largest-ever drug bust on a CSU campus happened at San Diego State University
By: Mallory Peebles
Issue date: 5/14/08 Section: News
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According to the Associated Press this was the result of a five-month investigation that was motivated by a drug overdose from cocaine that occurred in May last year.
96 people have been arrested in total since the start of the investigation and of them, 75 were SDSU students. Many of these students were linked closely to the SDSU Greek fraternity system, most notably Theta Chi.
Six fraternities were suspended by SDSU including Theta Chi, Delta Sigma Pi, and Phi Kappa Psi. California State University, Stanislaus has a Theta Chi chapter.
One of the SDSU Theta Chi fraternity houses was raided by police and there they recovered 2 kilograms of cocaine, 350 ecstasy tablets, marijuana, psychedelic mushrooms, hash oil, methamphetamine, illicit prescription drugs, several guns and at least $60,000 in cash, authorities said, according to the Associated Press.
Two of the students arrested were pursuing degrees in federal law enforcement. One was soon to graduate with a degree in criminal justice and another working towards a master's degree in homeland security.
The Theta Chi San Diego chapter has declined to comment on the drug bust but Theta Chi Headquarters has made a press release that can be found on their official Web site.
The Theta Chi CSU Stanislaus Chapter President, Vagif Ismayil, said, "First of all I would like to point out that Theta Chi is not the only fraternity involved. I think it is embarrassing for our name. I know our headquarters is taking serious action against their chapter, which will probably no longer be there."
Ismayil also made it a point to mention that this issue is completely isolated from Theta Chi at CSU Stanislaus because no member here has any issues with drugs. Theta Chi focuses strongly on philanthropy, especially in the Turlock community. Other Theta Chi members have also commented on the topic.
Jason Soares, a member of Theta Chi since Fall 2006 and a criminal justice major, said, "I don't think this will affect us much because of the distance. People here won't connect us to them."
Soares along with other members of Theta Chi CSU Stanislaus chapter have visited other Theta Chi chapters such as San Jose State University, California State University, Sacramento and California State University, Chico. He said on those visits he never saw or suspected any illicit drug use or drug dealing.
Melanie Petrossi, a junior at SDSU majoring in International Economics, said she was shocked by the arrests made at the Theta Chi "satellite" house.
A satellite house is a term given to unofficial fraternity houses and is usually farther from campus, according to Petrossi.
"I wouldn't have expected that from them at all," said Petrossi who has attended theme parties at the main Theta Chi house as well as its Satellite houses.
"When I attended parties there my freshmen year, Theta Chi was a dry frat so they weren't even supposed to have alcohol."
Many have called SDSU a party school but after this recent drug bust the school is taking on a new level of notoriety. Some students are now wondering if their degree will be marred by this incident.
"It makes me kind of happy not to be affiliated with the Greek system now," said Petrossi, "but I don't think it will affect my employment after college. If a company wants to drug test, they will. Also we are a huge campus and of the 40,00 students only 75 were arrested. That's a small percent of our schools population."
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Drug detox
posted 10/01/08 @ 5:44 AM PST
OMG! This is an impressive amount of drugs, it's like a slap in the face of authorities telling them they need to do better than this. Allowing a group of students to gather and deposit this amount of drugs speaks a lot about permissive politics in the entire campus. (Continued…)
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