What they were charged with
Pennsylvania AG Dave Sunday charged 14 people — 13 current/former Penn State students plus one dad. The breakdown:
1. 4 people — Agostino Abbatiello, Thomas Robinson, Mohammed Hurabi, Lars Zeepvat:
Felony corrupt organizations — that’s Pennsylvania’s version of RICO
Conspiracy, dealing in proceeds of unlawful activity, and related offenses
Sunday called it “an upper-level trafficking organization for this region in Pennsylvania”
2. 1 person — Robert Zanolla: Felony conspiracy plus criminal use of a communication facility
3. 8 people: Misdemeanor drug possession
4. 1 dad — Paul Robinson, Thomas’s father: Felony tampering, hindering apprehension for allegedly hiding a safe with drugs/cash
So there are corrupt organizations charges. That’s PA’s state RICO statute. It’s not federal RICO, which is why you might not be seeing that word.
Why no federal RICO? A few likely reasons based on how these cases usually go:
1. State vs Federal jurisdiction
AG Sunday ran this as a state case. Federal RICO requires proving an enterprise affecting interstate commerce plus pattern of racketeering. State corrupt orgs is easier to charge and still carries heavy penalties.
2. Scope of the enterprise
Prosecutors said the coco was sourced from Philly and NYC and distributed mainly to other students. If the feds don’t see it touching enough states or involving violent crime or guns, they often let the state handle it.
3. Cooperation strategy
8 people got misdemeanors only. That usually means they’re flipping. You charge the upper-level guys with corrupt orgs and let the pledges or users take smaller pleas to build the case.
4. Off-campus framing
AG Sunday emphasized “We did not hear of any drug packaging happening on Penn State’s campus”. Both frats operate off campus. Sigma Chi isn’t even a recognized Penn State org. That limits institutional liability and keeps it as a local drug ring vs a federally-targeted enterprise.
The part that has people heated
Court docs say cutting and packaging coco was, for some pledges, an indoctrination into the fraternities. Two senior frat members were allegedly at the very top of the chain running it like a business from 2023 to 2024.
Yet the media framing has been pretty tame compared to what would happen if this was D9 at an HBCU — like you said. No perp walks on CNN, no culture of criminality think pieces. Just 14 charged.
The case is still ongoing, so federal charges could still come. But right now PA is using its own corrupt orgs statute instead of federal RICO.
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