Secaucus Man Helped Launch Penn State Cocaine Empire, Says Attorney General

SECAUCUS, NJ — A young man who grew up in Secaucus helped launch a cocaine ring that operated between two Penn State fraternity houses. He told police he quit as the drug sales started to expand beyond the two frat houses. This is according to this criminal complaint released by the State College, PA Police department.

Mohammed Huraibi, 22, is one of four Penn State college students charged with felony charges of running the drug ring: He, Agostino Abbatiello, 24, of Long Island, Thomas Robinson, 23, from outside Pittsburgh and Lars Zeepvat, 24, of Mendham, NJ, were all arrested Monday and charged with running a felony corrupt organization, felony conspiracy and dealing in proceeds of unlawful activity, plus related offenses.

Police say those four were the main ringleaders. The other nine students arrested in connection with this are accused of helping them package and distribute the drugs. Robinson's father was also arrested and is charged with helping his son destroy evidence.

Huraibi is currently out on a $500,000 unsecured bail. He is next due back in court in Pennsylvania on Sept. 2.

All 12 of the college students arrested, plus Robinson's father, are out on bail. Except for Abbatiello, the ring's alleged leader and named as the main supplier of the cocaine, which he sourced from his hometown of Westbury, Long Island. He failed to appear Monday morning for his scheduled arraignment. He surrendered Tuesday and a judge ordered him held in jail without bail.

Police in the town of State College, PA started investigating the alleged cocaine ring in September 2024, after they got a tip that cocaine was being sold out of two fraternity houses on the Penn State campus, Delta Upsilon and Sigma Chi.

An undercover police officer posed as a buyer and the officer made a total of six cocaine purchases from Robinson between September 2024 and December 2024.

Robinson was subsequently arrested, and he told police how the ring operated:

Robinson and Huraibi were both fraternity brothers at Delta Upsilon. Robinson told police it was Huraibi who first introduced him to cocaine, for recreational use.

Robinson and Huraibi both told police Abbatiello was their supplier of the cocaine; Abbatiello was a member of Sigma Chi fraternity. Abbatiello, in turn, told police he had a source for the cocaine in his hometown of Westbury, on Long Island. (Abbatiello's alleged supplier on Long Island has never been named or criminally charged by police.)

Then came Huraibi's turn to be interviewed by police:

He told detectives he first started selling cocaine when he first joined Delta Upsilon fraternity in his freshman year, in 2022. He had just graduated from Bergen Catholic High School that May, having attended Secaucus High School for only one year.

Huraibi said he took over the job from another member of the fraternity house, and that, at the start, he just sold the drug to other members within the frat house.

In July 2023, police say Huraibi approached Robinson and asked him if he would like to become business partners in selling cocaine. When Robinson and Huraibi returned to school in the fall of 2023, they started buying larger amounts of the drug from Abbatiello, said police.

Initially, Huraibi alone acquired the drugs from Abbatiello. Later, he introduced the two to each other so Robinson could purchase directly from Abbatiello, said police.

The three would discuss cocaine purchases on SnapChat. One of the features of that app is that text messages disappear.

In one purchase, Robinson and Huraibi paid Abbatiello $4,000 for 100 grams of cocaine. In another purchase, the two bought 250 grams of cocaine from Abbatiello for around $7,500, said police.

Huraibi split the cocaine into half gram bags to sell for profit, said police. Huraibi and Robinson then sold the individual bags to other fraternity members or friends.

Zeepvat, of Mendham, was identified as another business partner of Abbatielio. Abbatiello and Zeepvat were both members of Sigma Chi and close friends. They worked closely together in distributing the drugs, said police. Zeepvat told police he was a cocaine user and when he first came to Penn State, he had a source for cocaine in Philadelphia. He initially bought the cocaine for himself and some of his fraternity brothers, including Abbatiello.

Zeepvat and Abbatiello started out buying between 3.5-7 ounces of cocaine from Zeepvat's Philadelphia source. After a short time, his source stopped talking to him. That's when Abbatiello switched to his Long Island source that would supply them with larger amounts of cocaine, said police.

As the drug business grew, Robinson used Delta Upsilon brothers to help them cut, package and deliver bags of cocaine, said police. Sigma Chi did the same. Both fraternities used pledges, or young men who wanted to join, to cut and package the cocaine to sell, said prosecutors. The older college students turned packaging the cocaine into an induction test to be accepted by the fraternities, said the Attorney General.

Huraibi told detectives that in December 2023, he told Robinson he wanted out of the business and wanted to stop selling cocaine. Robinson paid him back the base amount of cash that he contributed to purchasing the most recent supply of drugs and an additional amount for his profit.

After Huraibi quit, Robinson and Abbatiello ran the ring themselves, with Abbatiello supplying the drugs and Robinson making larger and larger purchases from him for re-sale, said police.

The drug purchases got bigger and more expensive: Robinson purchased 500 grams from Abbatiello for $18,000, and another purchase of 1,000 grams for $22,000, said police.

Huraibi told detectives that at the time he quit, he knew the drug operation had gotten larger and that drugs were being sold to students across campus.

At the time he was arrested, "Abbatiello was the main dealer of cocaine at Penn State and he was making considerable amounts of money in the business," said State College Police on page 16 of the criminal complaint.

"There was nothing junior or childlike about this type of conduct," Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday said this week when announcing the charges. "This was an upper-level trafficking organization for this region in Pennsylvania."

Prosecutors say in total, Abbatiello funneled over 3.5 kilograms of cocaine into the two frat houses. When police raided Robinson's room in the Delta Upsilon frat house, they said they found a total of 73.8 grams of cocaine.

After leaving the cocaine business, Huraibi stayed involved in drugs, criminal complaint says

Huraibi also told police he stayed involved with drugs: Huraibi testified that although he was backing out of the business, he continued to sell drugs to a friend of his at Acacia, another fraternity at Penn State.

Despite distancing himself from Robinson, Huraibi remained friends with several of the brothers at Delta Upsilon. (It is unknown if he quit the fraternity.) He also continued to attend parties, including "Molly" parties at the fraternity. A "Molly" party is a themed party where many of the attendees would consume the hallucinogenic drug known as "Molly." Huraibi testified that he supplied Molly to the brothers at the party, according to the criminal complaint.

Huraibi's LinkedIn account shows he started at Penn State in 2022 and expected to graduate in 2027. He is studying for a degree in finance. He attended Secaucus High School for just one year, from 2018 - 2019, before switching to Bergen Catholic, which he graduated from in May 2022. Bergen Catholic is an elite all-boys prep school in Bergen County. Abbatiello similarly attended a prestigious Catholic all-boys school on Long Island.

Huraibi's lawyer is Matthew Fogal, of Chambersburg, PA, reported NJ.com.

First report: Secaucus Man, A Bergen Catholic Grad, Accused Of Running Penn State Cocaine Ring (Aug. 19)