Penn State cocaine ring suspect’s attorney warns of ‘foolish’ move in alleged frat drug operation
Five men accused of being part of a cocaine distribution ring at Penn State filed court documents in Centre County, Pennsylvania, signaling plans to fight the charges against them.
Agostino Abbatiello, Mohammed Huraibi, Robert Zanolla, Thomas Robinson and Paul Robinson have each indicated they intend to plead not guilty as their cases move forward in Centre County court. The move comes despite testimony detailing kilogram-sized deals and a drug-packaging operation inside a fraternity house, though one of their attorneys warned it would be "foolish" to rush to judgment.
The Office of the Court Administrator said the five defendants waived their formal arraignments scheduled for Wednesday and will not appear at the Centre County Courthouse. Their next court appearance is scheduled for Nov. 16 for a pretrial conference.
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Abbatiello, Zanolla and Thomas Robinson requested jury trials on their waiver forms. Huraibi and Paul Robinson indicated they intend to plead not guilty but did not select either a jury or non-jury trial.
The five are among 14 people charged in the alleged operation, which prosecutors say used fraternity connections to move cocaine into State College before it was packaged and sold to Penn State students.
Thomas Robinson, a former Delta Upsilon fraternity member, testified that he and Huraibi began buying cocaine from Abbatiello in 2023, starting with about 100 grams for roughly $4,000.
Robinson said the cocaine was stored in his fraternity room, where he and Huraibi broke it into half-gram bags and sold them for about $80 each.
The quantities later grew to kilogram-sized purchases, Robinson testified. He said he eventually began buying directly from Abbatiello through Snapchat, where messages disappeared after 24 hours.
Huraibi also testified that he and Robinson bought cocaine in bulk to resell, initially packaging the drugs themselves before fraternity pledges became involved.
Charging documents portray Abbatiello as a top-level supplier who allegedly used fraternity connections to distribute cocaine near Penn State. Zanolla is accused of helping make trips to New York to obtain cocaine and transport it back to the State College area.
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Zanolla's attorney, Korey Leslie, confirmed to Fox News Digital that his client has entered a formal not-guilty plea and requested a jury trial.
Leslie said the defense has requested all evidence the Commonwealth intends to use at trial and will review it as the team prepares for potential pretrial litigation.
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Leslie declined to comment further, saying "pre-judging the evidence would be foolish."
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Paul Robinson faces a different set of allegations after Ryan Matson testified that Robinson helped him retrieve a safe hidden in the woods following Thomas Robinson's arrest. Matson said Thomas wanted to keep drugs and money from being discovered during a potential raid.
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Matson said Paul Robinson knew where the safe was hidden and later urged him not to tell anyone about it. Under questioning, Matson acknowledged he never opened the safe and initially withheld information from investigators because he wanted to protect Thomas.
Paul Robinson's defense has challenged whether he knew what was inside the safe.
Robinson's attorney, Michael DeRiso, downplayed the significance of waiving formal arraignment, describing it as largely procedural.
DeRiso described formal arraignment as largely procedural, saying it starts the clock for pretrial motions, allows attorneys to request discovery and provides the defense with the formal charging document.
"It is basically a paper date ... nothing exciting," DeRiso told Fox News Digital.
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A judge previously ruled there was enough evidence for charges against all five defendants to move forward.
Fox News Digital also reached out to attorneys for the remaining defendants.
Philip Masorti, who represents Abbatiello, said he was declining media requests at this time.