Five brainy Columbia University students were busted at its Upper Manhattan campus this morning after undercover cops bought $11,000 worth of cocaine, marijuana, LSD and Adderall from them at frat houses and in dorms over the past several months, authorities said.
In some cases, the LSD was applied to Altoids mints and other candy, including SweeTARTS, said Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan.
The undergrads allegedly scored their stashes from three drug traffickers in the East Village and Brooklyn — one of whom allegedly tried to hire an undercover cop to help kidnap a pair of rival cocaine traffickers who he then planned to torture by dosing them with LSD. The three suppliers were busted earlier.
At least two of the Columbia students — Christopher Coles and Harrison David — whined to a detective today that they resorted to selling drugs so they could pay their way through the elite university in Morningside Heights.
“Why do you think I have do do this s—?,” the 20-year-old David said to the detective, according to court records. “He [David’s father] won’t pay my tuition.”
Coles, also 20, allegedly told the same cop, “I just sell it to pay tuition.”
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly later told reporters, “This is no way to work your way through college.”
In addition to Coles and David, the other three Columbia students busted today in “Operation Ivy League” were 20-year-old Adam Klein, Jose Stephan Perez, a flamboyant 20-year-old who also is widely known on campus at Stephan Vincenzo, and Michael Wymbs, 22.
“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,” said Brennan, the Special Narcotics Prosecutor.
The defendants, who are charged with a variety of drug sales and other crimes, were awaiting arraignment today in Manhattan Supreme Court.
The majority of the 31 drug sales to undercover cops occurred in the common areas and bedrooms at Alpha Epsilon Pi, Pi Kappa Alpha and Psi Upsilon frat houses on W. 114th St., as well in rooms of two of the charged students at the Intercultural House and East Campus Housing, authorities said.
Authorities are not sure how long the Columbia drug ring was operating.
“We’re investigating that,” Brennan’s office said.
But the case began in late July, after authorities received several complaints about Harrison David via the Crimestopper tip line.
Undercover police began buying drugs from David “from late July, all the way into September, then we started buying into Chris [Coles] and [Perez] in the beginning of October,” said Brennan’s office. “We were referred to them by Harrison David.”
In addition to Ecstasy and pot, Perez is also accused of selling Adderall pills from his own prescription, authorities said.
“It was in early November that we started buying into Adam [Klein] and Michael [Wymbs],” Brennan’s office said. “In November, the undercover bought from all five of them.”
“Harrison David appears to have been the main contact person for the outside dealers, but we’re continuing to investigate all the sources of the drugs.”
After their arrests today, police found a bottle of LSD, ecstasy capsules, 15 Adderall pills, Altoid mints suspected of being dosed with LSD, more than half a pound of marijuana and $5,000 in cash from various locations.
The probe also led police to three drug traffickers who supplied the students.
Roberto Lagares, of Brooklyn, was arrested Sunday at his home in Bed-Stuy.
Two other drug suppliers were arrested Oct. 27 in the East Village.
One of these defendants, identified as Miron Sarzynski, sold cocaine and LSD to undercover officers on seven occasions in the East Village and in Ridgewood, Queens.
Sarzynski also manufactured drugs for distribution at his apartment on East 6th St. with the help of his girlfriend Megan Asper, who cops said specialized in growing pot.
Sarzynski is also charged for attempting to kidnap a pair of rival cocaine traffickers who he believed had stolen money from him.
During the course of the investigation, police said Sarzynski tried to hire an undercover officer to help him with the kidnapping. His plan was to kidnap the victims at gunpoint, hold them for ransom and torture them by forcibly administering a heavy dose of LSD, authorities said.
Sarzynski also told the undercover officer that the victims would be killed if no ransom money was provided.
A criminal complaint charges that Sarzynski told the undercover officer he would shock the victims with a stun gun, hit them in the head and rob them.
““Then I would have done something nasty like put a few drops of acid (LSD) in his mouth and then leave him there,”” Sarzynski told the cop, according to authorities.
Police Commissioner Kelly said, “The fact that a supplier to the Columbia students was willing to kill his rivals should demolish any argument that drugs on campus is a victimless crime.”
In a statement, Columbia University said, “The alleged behavior of the students involved in this incident goes against not only state and federal law, but also diversity policy and the principles we have set—and strive together to maintain—for our community. Please rest assured we are taking this matter very seriously.”
Additional reporting by Laura Italiano, Lachlan Cartwright, and Douglas Montero