Columbia Drug Bust: Five Arrested For Selling LSD, Pot, Cocaine

Five Columbia University students were arrested Tuesday morning for selling drugs on campus, according to DNA Info.

Chris Coles, Harrison David, Adam Klein, Joseph Stephen Perez, all 22, and Michael Wymbs, 20 were caught selling LSD, marijuana, cocaine, Adderall and powdered ecstasy in a sting operation called "Operation Ivy League." Also arrested were the students' three suppliers -- Roberto Lagares, 30, Megan Asper, 22 and Miron Sarzynski, 24 -- who are unaffiliated with the university.

Since July, undercover officers purchased more than $11,000 worth of narcotics from the five implicated students. The drug deals mostly took place at Alpha Epsilon Pi, Psi Upsilon and Pi Kappa Alpha's fraternity houses, and some allegedly occurred at the students' campus dorms.

A police press release revealed that during a raid on the students' rooms the police uncovered a bottle of LSD, 50 MDMA capsules, 15 Adderall pills, at least half a pound of marijuana and around $2,000.

Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan told the New York Post that "The students arrested today supplied dangerous substances to their friends and other students to turn a quick profit, but subjected themselves to risks, of which they were either ignorant or in denial. These students were playing with fire."

According to the Post, Miron Sarzynski has also been charged for trying to kidnap two cocaine-selling competitors whom he thought had stolen from him. Authorities said Sarzynski wanted to "torture them by forcibly administering a heavy dose of LSD."

Perez, who also goes by Stephan Vincenzo, gained campus notoriety as a party fiend on Facebook even before he got to Columbia, and was featured as a "campus character" on Columbia blog Bwog in April. According to the Columbia Daily Spectator, Vincenzo is a Gates Millenium Scholar.

According to Bwog, a national Psi Upsilon rep refused to give the blog an official comment, but said he would cooperate with university officials to "get to the bottom of this." Bwog also reports that sororities have been instructed to remove fliers promoting a joint event between Theta and Pike and to take down any Facebook photos of themselves taken inside the implicated houses.

The students will be arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court today.

Comments

[Paul Romon]

06:46 PM on 01/11/2011

they were selling the wrong drug to "pay for tuition" maybe next time they'll learn.

[Kina3]

11:25 AM on 12/09/2010

I hope they get the sentence any drug dealer on the street would get...NO double standards for these kids...

[hearhear88]

06:05 PM on 12/09/2010

wait, are you serious? i understand your ideals for fairness but shouldn't the response be anger with current drug laws, and not at the poor individuals who are being affected by them?

[Yoda103]

02:07 PM on 12/08/2010

If they didn't have the means to pay for it, they shouldn't have applied to that school. The article doesn't say they all use the money for school expenses, it says "at least one" does. Chances are those are rich kids with no moral values, happy to make a quick buck. Hopefully they will get expelled because there is no excuse for engaging in criminal activity and they took the spot of five more deserving, decent candidates. In the end, it's a plus for society. Give those characters an education and free reign and they will end up on Wall Street or run for public office in the future.

[AndyWright68]

12:00 PM on 12/08/2010

The completely failed war on drugs just keeps chugging along!

The Drug War - Turning innocent people who have hurt no one into criminals for over four decades and keeping us the #1 prison nation in the world!

Who says we are not #1 anymore? USA, #1 in incarcerations, #1 in war.

[Danko]

04:20 PM on 12/08/2010

Innocent Criminals

[Hare]

11:57 AM on 12/08/2010

Frantically, she called a friend to come over without telling him why. When he came he admonished her for opening the package and then calmly took the package and had her follow him outside where he opened the lid to the sewer and dumped the white dust to mix with the rest of the sc u m down there followed by the enveloped, he closed the lid, turned to her and told her, “if you cannot go to the police, this is what you do”. This young man was a poor black man who had no job at the time, was always borrowing money from his mom and sister, and had friends who only saw him at meal times. He knew the cocaine was probably worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and yet had no hesitation as to what to do. He knew right from wrong. When your turn to deal with temptation comes around remember, the consequences depend on the choices you make, so make sure you either know the consequences before hand , or be clear you have a choice to make and your decision will change your life for better or for worst, one way or another so make the right choice.

[Hare]

11:29 AM on 12/08/2010

Temptation
It seems like every one of us at one time or another are faced with temptation. The choices we make when we respond tend to be always life altering experiences, whether good or detrimental these consequences are eye openers and mind altering. More than thirty years ago I found myself spending every weekend with good friends, who considered drug use part of growing up and the total American experience. I was able to really have a great time considering that not once I did any drugs. My choice was easy for not a day went by that I didn’t equate drugs with the destruction of my country and the reason I was so far away from it. Looking back I know my choice was already made since I was the living consequence. One day the post office delivered a package to the wrong address. The young person who got it knew the name in the label and also knew this neighbor had moved months before without leaving forwarding address. Like so many reading this, she got curious and opened the heavy package. To her surprise she found about ten pounds of solid white powder cocaine. She regretted opening it but by then knew she could get in trouble for tampering with mail or worst case scenario have drug traffickers knocking g on her door. She had a reason to be afraid, drug men are known to be the best example of unkindness in human nature.

[CPAwADD]

09:31 AM on 12/08/2010

I prefer the band Operation Ivy to the drug bust.

[firstep]

09:27 AM on 12/08/2010

Spray Round UP on the Ivy

[meinmd]

08:00 AM on 12/08/2010

Where are their mugshots?

[Spikepine]

09:40 AM on 12/08/2010

If they are white, you might not ever see them. If they are rich, you will certainly not see them and they will not serve one minute in prison.

[Anthony Garnett]

12:50 PM on 12/08/2010

The Washington Post has some photos of them doing the perp walk
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/07/AR2010120702715.html?hpid=moreheadlines

[UDKM2010]

07:46 AM on 12/08/2010

Ah, the good old days of college.

[1differentdrummer]

07:26 AM on 12/08/2010

Apparently you don't need to be smart to get into Columbia.

[rjmtx]

07:10 AM on 12/08/2010

Why is this national news? That's really not much in the grand scheme. If we put on X ray specs, we'd see that kind of stash in high schools and colleges across the US. Most of those kids using it will turn out alright, too. Amazing...

[imusintheevening]

05:49 AM on 12/08/2010

Anyone else curious to know if the LSD is as pure today as it was in 60's?

[rjmtx]

07:08 AM on 12/08/2010

Don't know about the 60's, but there was still some astronomical stuff the in long gone 90's...

[Danko]

10:41 AM on 12/08/2010

it's making a come back

[quietlycontemplating]

04:01 AM on 12/08/2010

Ironic: Michael Wymbs' LinkedIn profile states his industry as "pharmaceuticals":
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/+/Wymbs
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mike-wymbs/14/a87/651

[dems08]

03:03 AM on 12/08/2010

they've been buying drugs from them since July?