Penn State’s Alleged Frat Cocaine ‘Godfather’ Requests A Speedy Trial Before The End Of The Year

Agostino Abbatiello, the former Sigma Chi brother witnesses called the biggest cocaine dealer at Penn State, would like his day in court sooner rather than later.

In a Sept. 16 motion, the man who allegedly gave himself the nickname “the Godfather” asked for a speedy trial, agreeing to jury selection on Dec. 7 as long as prosecutors turn over discovery on time. His attorney, Philip Masorti, wrote that the charges and the media attention around them have put substantial stress on Abbatiello and his family.

Onward State reported the request last week.

On Monday, The Wall Street Journal expanded on it with a deep dive on “Operation Drugs Unlimited,” the state attorney general’s case against 13 current and former students and one frat brother’s father, which the Journal, citing authorities, says touched five fraternities. The internet has already christened Abbatiello “Pablo Pledgescobar.” The Journal went looking for the person behind the nickname.

Much of the Journal’s piece retraces the Delta Upsilon pledge operation BroBible laid out on September 18, working from grand jury presentments obtained from the Centre County Prothonotary and Clerk of Courts: the steady hand test, the Walmart runs for goggles and baggies, and bagging sessions, first in Robinson’s room and later in the DU basement, one of which produced more than 200 half-gram bags. The Journal also turned up new material on Abbatiello’s past, his supplier and the Greek life backdrop at Penn State.

Here’s what’s worth knowing:

Abbatiello is due back in court Sept. 30 alongside Thomas Robinson, Paul Robinson, Lars Zeepvat, Mohammed Huraibi and Robert Zanolla. The eight defendants facing misdemeanors have hearings set for Oct. 14.

Reminder: All of the allegations come from grand jury presentments, criminal complaints and preliminary hearing testimony and haven’t been tested at trial. Everyone charged is presumed innocent.

The Wall Street Journal reports on the Godfather’s high school years

Before State College, Abbatiello grew up in Westbury, N.Y., on Long Island, and graduated in 2020 from Chaminade High School, a Catholic all-boys school in Mineola, New York where tuition runs close to $20,000 a year.

Former homeroom classmates told the Journal he was confrontational, directing insults and a homophobic slur at peers, two of whom later transferred out of the school. One classmate recalled to the Journal seeing him smoke weed on school grounds but said he had no reputation for dealing back then. Chaminade didn’t respond to the Journal’s request for comment.

That gap between the kid classmates remember and the campus kingpin prosecutors describe is where the story gets interesting. By his time at Penn State, according to grand jury documents, Abbatiello was running a cocaine business well beyond his own fraternity and sending Sigma Chi brothers on road trips to New York to restock.

A name for the supplier, sort of

Those New York runs for cocaine led to a Long Island acquaintance from Abbatiello’s hometown, according to the grand jury documents. The Journal reports that a witness at a Sept. 2 preliminary hearing referred to that supplier as “R.J.” His identity remains unknown, and he hasn’t been publicly charged.

At an Aug. 17 press conference, the attorney general’s office described the network as an upper-level trafficking organization sourcing from Philadelphia and New York.

The spring break debt

One of the more human details in the Journal’s reporting comes from Sigma Chi brother Lars Zeepvat.

He told the grand jury he borrowed $1,500 from Abbatiello to cover a spring break trip, couldn’t pay it back, and worked off the debt by making cocaine deliveries. As investigators closed in, Zeepvat said, Abbatiello pleaded with him not to cooperate.

How Robinson moved up the ladder

The Journal also retraces how Thomas Robinson, a Pittsburgh native who joined Delta Upsilon in 2022, went from Huraibi’s junior partner to DU’s main dealer, a progression BroBible detailed earlier this month in our breakdown of how much money allegedly flowed through the ring.

In 2023, according to Huraibi’s testimony, the pair went in together on 100 grams of cocaine for $4,000, with Abbatiello as the source. Huraibi later connected Robinson with Abbatiello directly.

By the start of 2024, Huraibi wanted out and handed the business to Robinson. Within a year, he was selling outside the house too. According to the testimony, friends and brothers warned him the operation was getting too big and could land everyone in trouble.

He ignored them.

Robinson also testified that he’d been buying marijuana on a Native American reservation in Salamanca, N.Y., after a tip from a friend in Phi Kappa Theta, paying $300 a pound and turning profits upward of $1,500.

The bust

As BroBible previously reported, the end came through Snapchat and Venmo. Starting in September 2024, a State College police detective ran a confidential informant who reached Robinson through a friend in DU. The first buy was 2.5 grams for $140. A later one was a full ounce for $1,200. Payments went through a Venmo handle that was, helpfully for investigators, Robinson’s own name.

The final controlled buy, a $20 half gram on Dec. 12, 2024, was made by the DU brother who had made the original introduction. Police raided Robinson’s room the next day. According to court documents, Robinson initially assumed the officers were his fraternity brothers pulling a prank, threatened them repeatedly, resisted arrest, and was tased. Police found Adderall, cocaine, marijuana, nearly $2,000 in cash and a loaded Kimber .45 handgun in a safe.

The other safe, and the dad

There was a second safe. After Robinson made bail, according to grand jury testimony, he called his best friend in the house using his father’s phone. The friend had buried that safe in the woods about 30 minutes outside State College and marked the spot on Apple Maps. Days later, the friend testified, Paul Robinson picked him up at the DU house, drove him to the site, and the safe went home under a blanket in the back of Paul’s car.

Paul Robinson is charged with felony tampering and hindering apprehension for allegedly trying to conceal evidence.

The day after prosecutors filed the case, he posted a since-deleted plea on Facebook, first reported by TribLIVE, writing, “I promise I tried only to do what was right and lawful at all times.”

In his first public comments on the case, a statement released last week through his defense attorneys to TribLive and NewsWorks Lab, Paul Robinson said the claims about him “are not true” and that he looks forward to telling what actually happened. He also argued that his son cooperated after his 2024 arrest, only to be re-charged with the same crimes plus new ones, and that Tom’s honesty “was used against him.”

Sigma Chi was already off the grid

Penn State’s Sigma Chi chapter operates independently of the university, according to the school’s own list of suspended and unrecognized groups, meaning it wasn’t subject to university oversight or rules. The Journal reports the Sigma Chi national organization has since placed the chapter on interim suspension.

Penn State has done the same to Delta Upsilon and says it’s improving hazing education ahead of spring rush.

Fraternity culture and hazing at Penn State

The Journal’s most pointed detail concerns timing. Penn State cracked down on Greek life after 19-year-old pledge Tim Piazza died following a 2017 hazing ritual at another fraternity. Recent graduates told the Journal the crackdown didn’t do much to curb drug use, and that some houses were long known as places to get cocaine, Adderall and weed.

The Journal reports Robinson was initiated into DU the day after Penn State officials told Greek life leaders they planned to relax some post-Piazza rules, according to a November 2022 memo Spotlight PA first reported in March 2023.

The timing is noteworthy, and the full context matters. Spotlight PA’s 2023 reporting said the memo called for moving toward chapter self-governance and away from university monitoring, with plans to end regular monitoring of chapter houses and allow first-semester recruitment.

After that story ran, Penn State confirmed the proposed changes had not occurred and called the reporting “speculative.” The court record doesn’t answer whether any rollback ever reached DU’s pledge process.

What’s next in this saga…

Sept. 30 is the date for formal arraignments, though Abbatiello’s motion says he intends to waive his.

Abbatiello’s speedy trial request means the Godfather storyline could move from grand jury transcripts to a courtroom before the spring semester starts.

BroBible will keep following the filings.

Follow me on X for more updates as things continue to unfold…